ML19347F079
| ML19347F079 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/05/1981 |
| From: | Hendrie J NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Dingell J HOUSE OF REP., ENERGY & COMMERCE |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8105150219 | |
| Download: ML19347F079 (4) | |
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o UNITED STATES F
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION o
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WASHINGTON, D. C. 20565
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I(;0y May 5, 1981 s
CHAIRMAN
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g The Honorable John D. Dingell, Chairman
_ lim \\s9 Comittee on Energy and Connerce
,b Unitad States House of Representatives C
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This is in response to your request for the Nuclear Regulatory Comission's coments on H.R. 2512, the " Nuclear Power Plant Property Damage Insurance Act of 1981." The bill would provide insurance for licensees of nuclear power plants for on-site property damage resulting from a nuclear incident and would provide funds to General Public Utilities Corporation (GPU) to cover up to 75 per cent of the uninsured post-enactment costs of cleanup associated with on-site property damage at Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2). The bill would also establish such insurance ar a precondition for the NRC's issuance of operating licenses for nuclear power plants.
The Comission supports the requirement for on-site property damage insurance because it would ensure the availability of funds to clean up reactor accidents and, thus, promote protection of the public health and safety and of the environ-ment. However, the Comission believes that it is up to Congress to specify the conditions under which funds will be provided for the cicanup of TMI-2. Accord-ingly, the Comission.neither supports nor opposes this provision of the bill.
Htwever, some provisions of the bill could create a problem of conflict of interest on the part of the Chairman of the NRC.
For example, Section 8(B)(2)(b)(i) provides that for GPU to be reimbursed for cleanup costs, the Board of Directors of the National Property Insurance Corporation must find that the contingency plan developed jointly by the Pennsylvania and.New Jersey Public Utility Comissions is compatible with the principle that financial responsibility for the accident at TMI will be shared among those with underlying responsibility. The Chairman of the NRC would be a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation. Thus, if the Corporation is to determine who has the responsibility for the accident, he would be involved in that decision.
Such involvement would conflict with the NRC's current defense against a lawsuit filed by GPU alleging NRC responsibility regarding the accident. This provision coulo be amended to avoid any possibility of conflict of interest by providing that the Board of Directors of the Corpora-tion will not be responsibile for determining underlying responsibility for the accident at TMI.
In addition, Section 10 may raise similar problems.
8105150 M'l F
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The Honorable John D. Dingell '
The separate views of Comissioner Ahearne are attached. Also, I have prepared some additional coments and these are attached.
Thank you for this opportunity to present the Comission's views.
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\\x Sincerely, e
h M. Hendrie
Enclosures:
1.
Separate views of Comissioner Ahearne 2.
Additional coments of Chairman Hendrie 4
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Comissioner Ahearne agrees there is a need to resolve the TMI situation. The reactor must be cleaned up--public health and safety demand it--and it will take $500M-$1B. Whether or not rate payers, j
shareholders, the nuclear industry, the electric utility industry, or taxpayers pay for it--how much and from whom--is not a matter for the NRC.
The NRC's concern must be bound by the public health and safety requirements. The precise mechanism for achieving this objective is not a matter within the Comission's jurisdiction or expertise.
It is up to Congress and the state regulatory cominion to determine the correct framework.
As an individual who has kept abreast of the TMI development, he believes the cleanup costs should be split among all groups. He believes the rate payers, who benefited from lower rates in the past, should pay for at least one third of the cleanup, and the PUC should so detennine, and the taxpayers in general should pay that part that DOE funds for the R&D and handling of the high level waste. Finally, in his opinion it would appear appropriate that the nuclear industry pay part of the costs--they also benefited in the past from taxpayer help and will benefit from the many analyses of the accident.
He notes that a retrospective insurance approach has the likely result of indirectly taxing the ratepayers of all utilities, since this is in essence a collection, through rates, to pay for TMI. The bill provides essentially to fund the TMI cleanup by taxing the utility industry for the first several years of the Corporation.
In general, Comissioner Ahearne has seen no compelling reason for the NRC requiring property insurance. While understanding the argument for requiring financial protection, ' t w es no basis for specifying property insurance as opposed to o'.ie, cvenues (such as prospective rate assessments) as the only appror at 4 vant of providing for possible future accidents.
In additica. Tw ' tr.ission has not considered the proper framework for administs ing a insurance system and its proper role in such a system.
Comissioner Ahear.w believes the matter is more complex than is suggested by the Comission't coment on the potential conflict of interest.
With respect to Sections 8 and 9, Comissioner Abearne urges that waste (given a stronger mandate to take custody of portions of the TMI DOE be see attached letters addressing this issue).
2 Finally, since the NRC staff has not had time to analyze this legislation, he notes two items of concern:
1.
The provision that all operating plants must shut down six months after enactment of the bill, unless the insurance corporation is up and running,could have a substantial impact.
Appointing members, establishing rates, arranging for premiums l
will likely take much longer than six months.
2.
The steps that must be taken before any' funds are available for the TMI cleanup may also be very hard to complete and may take years. Funds for the cleanup must be found much sooner.
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October 20, 1980 oo...
CHA}RMN The Honorable Charles W. Duncan
- Secretary of Energy Washington, D. C. 20545 j
Dear Mr. Secretary:
As. progress is made in the cleanup of TNI-2, additional infomation
. becomes available about.the nature of the radioactive wastes involved.
Through this learning process, it has become evident to the NRC staff that some of the high specific activity wastes resulting 'from the clean-up operations will be unsuitable for routine disposal at comercial licensed burial grounds.
It has been apparent for some. time,that the spent fuel in the damaged core will have to be considered as high-level i
waste.
In addition, it now appears that other wastes will have some characteristics very similar to high-level waste; typical materials that likel,y will fall into this category are some of the wastes that will result from processing the reactor buildin.g sump water and the reactor i
coolant system water.
The NRC. staff considers disposal of these wastes at comercial licensed burial grounds, even with very special provisions, i
2 to be unfeasible or unacceptable.
The only short-tem avenue available
'for removal of these wastes from the site is transferral to suitable DOE facilities.
The NRC staff believes that the handling and processing of wastes at the TMI site should be limited to well-established operations, such as immobilization of low-level wastes. The site should not become a r.esearch, development, and demonstration facility for handling and processing -high specific activity wastes which are quite different from normal reactor plant wastes, but which in many ways resemble wastes handled frequently by DOE facilities.
Attempting any such advanced operations on site would seriously overburden the utility's technical and manage' ent capabilities and could cause unnecessary delays in com-m pleting the cleanup.
Accordingly, the NRC staff has been working closely with the DDE staff in establishing both short-term and long-term programs to develop information and technology of generic value for radioactive waste management froni the TMI-2 cleanup operatio'ns.
In addition, two meetings have been held with the DOE Assistant Secretary
~for Nuclear Energy.
However, all activities preser.tly being considered by DOE appear to be limited in scope to DOE performing research and development work on limited quantities (10%-20%) of the wastes involved in order to characterize waste processing problems or to develop po-tential solutions.
We understand present DDE planning assumes that the e
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"., responsibility for actual waste hrr.dling, processing into final disposal forms, and disposal of the bulk of the waste remains with the licensee.
' If they are not transferred to DOE facilities, we anticipate that the high specific activity wastes which are unique to TMI-2 may have to be retained.at the TMI-2 site for tens of years until suitable waste im-mobilization processes, containers, and facilities are available for the disposaT.cf such wastes.
The staff has serious concerns about the long ' term stability of 3
,' the high specific activity (i.e., > 1000 Ci/ft ) wastes anticipated to -
be generated at the Three Mile Island site from future cleanup activities.
This waste may be in the form of high' specific acitivity spent resins or evaporator bottoms from the processing of reactor building sump water.
(This waste will also include damaged fuel elements or pieces of fuel elemehts which will require storage in specially designed sealed con-tainers'to preclude the potential spread of radioactivity outside the storagecontainer.)
The staff has reservations whether suitable storage containers for spent resins or evaporator bottoms will be able to with-r stand the macroscopic effects of corrosion, pH change, and gas forma-s.
tion during extended storage (i.e.., tens of years)
We do [ot believe that.long term onsite storage of loose resin materials or evaporator bottom slurries is comparable to routine storage of undamaged spent fuel in a fuel pool of a normally" operating reactor.
In the staff's view, it would be necessary to immobilize the contained activity in the collected solid waste into a solid monolithic form as expeditiously as practicable to eliminate the potential for onsite ex-posure due to subsequent container failure.
This immobilization can best be carried by experienced personnel in a facility designed for that purpose, namely, at one of the existing DOE high level waste handling and processing facilities.
The NRC presently believes that it may be undesirable for radioactive wastes in the forms likely to be produced as a result of cleaning up TMI-2 to be stored at the TMI site for long periods.
We are concerned that certain key options for the handling, storage, treatment, or dis-posal of such wastes are precluded from consideration by the limited scope of activities presently being considered by the DDE staff.
In order to further the resolution of the scope of DOE's participation in the management of these wastes, I suggest that we meet in the near future to address these issues in the context of the House Appropriations Conmittee recent position:
"[T]he Department [of Energy] has an over-riding public responsibility to assist NRC, the S; ate of Pennsylvania and the utility, as necessary to resolve as quickly as possible an ac-
.ceptable process o isolate and remove the wastes to a safe disposti site."
kin erely,
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/ John [.Ahearne i
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UNITED STATES
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 7,.
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January 7,1981 l
The Honorable C. Worth Baternan Acting Under Secretary of Energy Washington, D.C.
20545
Dear Mr. Bateman:
.' As indicated in Chairman Ahearne's October 20, 1980 letter to Secretary Duncan, the Commission is cohcerned that DOE has limited the scope of its staffs activities relative to the cleanup at TMI-2, specifically, that DOE has not included in their planning, immobilization at existing DOE facilities of high specific activity wastes which are anticipated to be generated from the cleanup.
NRC understands that your staff has raised questions about accepting these wastes for processing and storage at DOE facilities, even though experienced staffs and suitable technology or systems appear to be available at the existing p
DOE high level waste hand 11.ng and processing facilities, and the required imobilization steps are beyond the current capabilities of Metropolitan Edison Company.
The DOE questions, as expressed to our staff, center on the i
applicability of NRC licensing requirements which might be associated with transfer of these high specific activity materials from Metropolitan Edison Company, to a DDE facility.
Based upon our understandi.ng of the needed activities and the resources and facilities availablet you to carry out these activities, NRC licensing requirements should not apply.
As you know, licensing authority with respect to DDE waste management facilities is derived from section 202(3) of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974.
Under that provision, the Commission exercises licensi.ng authority as to DOE
" facilities used primarily for the receipt and storage of high-level radioactive wastes resulting from activities licensed under [the Atomic Energy Act)." The' term "high-level radioactive wastes" has been used in the past to refer solely to spent fuel and reprocessing waste.
We would not rule out the term's application to wastes which present comparable hazards, possibly including those from TMI-2.
However, even if the materials are deemed to be "high-level radioactive wastes," NRC would have no jurisdiction over the DOE facilities at which they are stored (or disposed of) unless those facilities are used primarily for receipt and storage of comercial wastes.
If the Department were to.take custody of the TMI-2 waste, we anticipate that it would be stored at a -location having some other primary use, and accordingly NRC licensing would not be required by law, j
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'* i y Honorabl. C. Worth Bateman e
~ We note that the mat'erial would need to be processed, at It is our position that such processing is not ilities in it suitable for disposal.
encompassed by the ^,erms " receipt and storage," so that the fa licensjng which processing activities were performed would not be subjec under section 202(3).
Please con'$ct me if you wish to discuss this matter further, Sincerely,
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i liam J. Dircks Executive Director for Operations A
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS OF CHAIRMAN HENDRIE I concur in the Comission's letter but wish to express some personal views on the matters covered in H.R. 2512.
With regard to the establishment of a sufficient insurance fund to cover the repair and cleanup costs of any future reactor accident, I am convinced that such a step is necessary and should be taken as soon as possible.
There is, of course, the question of whether it is better done by Federal statute, as propcsed in H.R. 2512, or privately by the nuclear and insurance industries.
On balance, I conclude that H.R. 2512 is the better choice. There is considerable advantage in the H.R. 2512 scheme in the likely speed with which such a fund can be set up and also in the uniform treatment of the insurance premiums by State utility commissions that would result.
With regard to the provisions of H.R. 2512 for the cleanup of Three Mile Island Unit 2, I believe they offer a reasonable solution to the present impasse.
I had thought earlier that TMI cleanup costs should be borne entirely by ratepayers in the General Public Utility Corporation service area. More recently I have come to the conclusion that that course would only result in an indefinite and unacceptable delay in cleaning up Unit 2.
I agree with Comissioner Ahearne on the need for a stronger provision in the bill on the wastes from the TMI cleanup and with his concern about
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certain matters of timing in the bill.
I believe Section 9 of H.R. 2512 should be expanded to authorize the Secretary of Energy to receive, process, and store those radioactive wastes, including the damaged fuel, from the Unit 2 cleanup that the NRC specifies as unsuitable for disposal in a commercial low level waste facility.
There is much of general value to be learned from an examination of the damaged core and also from processing and solidification of the wastes.
These are legitimate research and development tasks for the D?partment of Energy and, with the storage, should be done without charge 4.o the utility. To relieve concern that NRC lic ensing authority may follow these wastes into otherwise unlicensed Department of Energy installations, Section 9 should explicitly exclude NRC licensing of such wastes and fuel as long as they are in storage.
(The processed wastes and fuel would presumably be put in a permanent high level disposal
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facility when one is established.)
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The requiremnt, in Section 6(b), for shutdown of all operating reactors six months after enactment of the bill unless the licensees have paid the first insurance premium is almost certain to be troublesome.
Similarly, j
the requirement on new operating licenses that the premium be paid before
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license issuance will be a problem.
Some time after enactment will be i
needed to get the insurance scheme in place and until it is done there is no way for licensees or applicants to meet the requirements of the bill.
A better timing provision would be to key the requirement for new operating
2 licenses and the start of the 180 days for already operating plants to the date of formal publication by the Corporation of the premium rates, as required by Section 7(a), rather than to the date of enactment of the bill.
Also, there may be timing problems with regard to funds for the TMI cleanup. One problem is that the initial 100 million dollars the Corporation is authorized to borrow from the Treasury may not be enough if formation and organization of the Corporation takes some time, as it probably will.
An increase in the initial borrowing authorization, perhaps to 200 million would cure that potential problem.
A harder pr'oblem is that the utility's property damage insurance is likely to be expended before the Corporation is in a position to provide further cleanup funds, in view of the various arrangements between public and private bodies that have to be set up and the findings that have to be made as to those arrangements. The result may be that the cleanup will be halted for some time and the utility will be unable to retain the cleanup work force.
I suggest that the Commerce Committee examine this question of the probable timing of fund availability in detail end consider some sort of interim loan provision or other measure if the problem, is a real one.
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Dirn CONGRESS Isr Sessios To provide for supplemental insurance to cover the costs of necessary remedial action following damage to nuclear powerplants, including certain remedial action at the Three 3ille Island fa:ilities, and for other purposes.
IN TIE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3fARCit 12,1981 3fr. Earzt. introduced the following bill, which was referred jointly to the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Interior and Insular Affairs I
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A BILL To provide for supplemental insurance to cover the costs of necessary remedial action following damage to nuclear powerplants, including certain remedial action at the Three Mile Island facilities, and for other purposes.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-2 tires of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3
SIIORT TITLE 4
SECTION 1. This Act may be ci!ad as the " Nuclear 5 Powerplant Property Damage Insurance Act of 1981".
6 DEFINITIONS 7
SEC. 2. As used in this Act, the term-1
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1 (1) "On-site property damage" means damage to, p
2 or loss of the use of, property which is located at the i
3 site of, and used in connection with, a nuclear power-4 plant. Such term does not include any damage which 1
5 may be subject to a claim,under section 170 of the t
1 6
7 (2) " Commission" means the Nuclear Regulatory j
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Commission.
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9 (3) " Corporation" means the National Nuclear 10 Property Insurance Corporation established under this E
11 Act.
9 12 (4) " Fund" means the Nuclear Property Insur-13 ance Fund established under section 5 of this Act.
14 ESTABLISHAIENT OF CORPORATION 15 SEc. 3. (a) ESTABLISHAIENT.-There is established a 16 body corporate to be known as the National Nuclear Prop-17 erty Insurance Corporation.
b 18 (b) BOARD; CHAIRh1AN.-The Corporation. shall be I
19 under the direction of a Board of Directors and shall be ad-20 ministered by the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
I 21 (c) MEh1BERS OF BOARD.-The Board of Directors I
w 22 shall consist of the following nine members:
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23 (1) Five members appointed by the President of
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7-24 the United States from among persons having expertise j_
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in diverse fields including the electric utility industry, 2
banking, and insurance.
3 (2) The Chairman of the Board appointed under 4
subsection (d).
5 (3) The President of the Corporation appointed 6
under subsection (e).
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(4) The Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory i
8 Commission (or his designee).
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(5) The Chairman of the Federal Energy Regula-10 tory Commission (or his designee).
11 The members of the Board appointed under paragraphs (1) 12 through (3) shall be voting members and the members serv-13 ing on the Board by reason of paragraphs (4) and (5) shall be 14 nonvoting members. The members of the Board appointed i
i 15 under paragraph (1) shall serve for terms of 3 years, except IG that of the members first appointed under paragraph (1), two 17 shall serve for 1 year, and two shall. serve for 2 years.
18 (d) CnAIR3 tax.-The Chairman of the Board shall be 19 appointed by the President of the United States and chall 20 serve for a 5-year term. No individual may serve as Chair-21 man of the Board for more than two 5-year terms.
22 (e) PRESIDENT.-The' Board shall appoint a President 23 of the Corporation who shall be the chief operating officer of i
24 the Corporation and who shall serve at the pleasure of the i
25 Board.
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H R. 2512-ah
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POWERS OF THE CORPORATION i
2 SEC. 4. (a) GENERAL PowsRs.-To carry out the pur-3 poses of this Act, the Corporation shall~ have such powers as i
4 are conferred on a nonprofit corporation under the District of 5 Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act (D.C. Code, 29-1001 5
6 et seq.) and as are necessary to carry out its insurance func-E 7 tions under this Act. In addition to any specific power grant-8 ed to the Corporatit.r elsewhere in this Act or under that j
9 Act, the Corporation shall also have the power-l 10 (1) to sue and be sued, complain and defend, in its 11 corporate name and through its own counsel, in any e.=
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12 court, State or Federal; 13 (2) to adopt, alter, and use a corporate seal, En 14 which shall be judicially noticed;
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15 (3) to adopt, amend, and repeal, by the Board of 16 Directors, bylaws, rules, and regulations relating to the 17 conduct of its business and the exercise of all other 18 rights and powers granted to it by this Act; 19 (4) to conduct its business (including the carrying 20 on of operations and the m.' 'mance of offices) and to l
21 exercise all other rights and m.cers granted to it by I
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22 this Act in any State or other jurisdiction w'.thout 23 regard to qualification, licensing, or other requirements mid 24 applicable to corporate or insurance regulation which 12 25 are imposed by law in such State or other jurisdiction; b
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1 (5) to lease, purchase, accept gifts or donations of,
-2 or otherwise to acquire, to own, hold, improve, use, or 3
otherwise deal in or with, and to sell, convey, mort-4 gage, pledge, lease, exchange, or otherwise dispose of, 5
any property,' real, personal, or mixed, or any interest 6
therein wherever situated; 7
(6) to appoint and fix the compensation of such of-8 ficers, attorneys, employees, and agents as may be re-9 quired, to determine their qualifications, to define their 10 duties,. and, to the extent desi.d by the Corporation, 11 require bonds for them and fix the penalty thereof, and i
12 to appoint and fix the compensation of experts and 13 consultants in accordance with the provisions of section i
14 3109 of title 5; 15 (7) to utilize the personnel and facilities of any 16 other agency or department of the United States Gov-17 ernment, with or without reimbursement, with the con-l 18 sent of the head of such agency or departments; and 19 (8) to enter into contracts, to execute instruments, 20 to incur liabilities, and to do any and all other acts and 21 things as may be necessary or incidental to the conduct 22 of its business and the exercise of all other rights and 93 pow-w granted to the Corporation under this Act.
24 (b) BYLAWS OF CORPORATION.-As soon as practica-25 ble, but not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-H 8t. til24
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1 ment of this Act, the Board of Directors shall adopt initial i
2 bylaws and rules relating to the conduct of the business of 3 the Corporation. Thereafter, the Board of Directors ma.v alter, supplement, or repeal any existing bylaw. or rule, and 4
5 may adopt ' additional bylaws and rules from time to time as G may be necessary. The Chairman of the Board shall cause a 7 copy of the b,0. ws of the Corporation to be published in the 8 Federal Register not less often than once each year.
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(c)(1) EXEMPTION Fnon TAXATION.-The Corpora-l 10 tion, its property, its franchise, capital, reserves, surplus, and 11 its income (including, but not limited to, any income of the i
12 fund established under this Act), shall be exempt from all 13 taxation now or hereafter imposed by any State or local taxing authority, except that any real property and any tan-14 5
15 gible personal property (other than cash and securities) of the IG Corporation shall be subject to State and local taxation to the j
17 same extent according to its value as other real and tangible 18 personal property is taxed.
19 (2) The receipts and disbursements of the Corporation in i
20 the discharge of its functions shall not be included in the 21 totals of the budget of the United S;ates Government and j
h 22 shall be exempt from any general limitations imposed by stat-h t,
23 ute on budget outlays of the United States. Except as explie-E 24 itly provided in this Act, the United States is not liable for
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25 any cbligation or liability incurred by the Corporation.
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1 INSURANCE FUND
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SEC. 5. (a) ESTABLISHMENT.-There is established on j
l 3 the books of the' Treasury a Nuclear Property Insurance 4 Fund to be used by the Corporation in carrying out this Act.
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(b) CREDITS.-The fund shall be credited with-6 (1) premiums, interest, and charges collected p
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under this Act; I
8 (2) earnings. accruing to the fund under subsection 9
(d);
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10 (3) funh borrowed under the authority ci d,sec-
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11 tion (e); and l
12 (4) any amounts accruing to the Corporation by
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13 reason of the subrogation authority of section 10.
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o 14 (c) PAYMENTS.-Amounts credited to the fund shall be E
15 available-t 16 (1) for making such insurance payments as the i
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fj 17 Corporation deems necessary pursuant to the insurance I
is 18 coverage provided by the Corporation under section 6; 1
i 19 (2) to repay such sums as may be borrowed (to-20 gether with interest thereon) under subsection (e);
E 21 (3) for making the payments authorized under sec-E 22 tion 8 with respect to the Three Mile Island Unit 2; 23 and c
24 (4) for covering administrative expenses of the fl.
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1 (d' INVESTMENTS.-Whenever the Corporation deter-2 mines that the moneys of the fund are in excess of current
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.i 3 needs, it may request the investment of such amounts as it j
s 4 determines advisable by the Secretary of the Treasury in ob-
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a 5 ligations issued by the United States but, until all borrowings
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6 under subsection (e) of this section have been repaid, the obli-l 7 gations in which such excess moneys are invested may not 8 yield a rate of return in excess of the rate c' interest payable I
9 on such borrowings.
10 (e) BORROWING AUTIIORITr.-For purposes of cover-11 ing-12 (1) initial administrative costs pending the receipt 13 of premiums, and t
14 (2) obligations incurred by the Corporation under
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t 15 section 8 with respect to Three Mile Island Unit ')
16 the Corporation is authorized to issue to the Secretary of the 15 17 Treasury notes or other obligations in an aggregate amount E
18 of not to exceed $100,000,000, in such forms and denomina-
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19 tions, bearing such maturities, and subject to such terms and 20 conditions as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the 21 Treasury. Such notes or other obligations shall bear interest 22 at a rate determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, taking 23 into consideration the current average market yield on out-24 Standing marketable obligations of the United States of com-25 parable maturities during the month preceding the issuance j
Il R. 2312-lh
9 1 of such notes or other obligations of the Corporation. The 2 Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to pur-l 3 chase any notes or other obligations issued by the Corpora-4 tion under this subsection, and for that purpose he is author-5 ized to use as a public debt transaction the proceeds from the G sale of any securities issued under the Second Liberty Bond 7 Act, and the purposes for which securities may be issued b under that Act, are extended to include any purchase of such 9 notes and obligations. The Secretary of the Treasury may at 10 any time sell any of the notes or other obligations acquired by I
11 him under this subsection. All redemptions, purchases, and 12 sales by the Secretary of the Treasury of such notes or other l
13 obligations shall be treated as public debt transactions of the i
14 United States. Any debt obligation issued by the Corporation 15 shall be eligible for purchase, and committment to purchase, 16 by the Federal Financing Bank in accordance with the provi-i 17 sions of the Federal Financing Eank Act of 1973 (12 U.S.C.
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IS 2281-2296). At such time a.: the aggregate principal amount 19 of all notes or other obligations of the Corporation issued 20 after the date of the enactment of this Act equals 21 $100,000,000, whether or not such notes or other obligations 22 continue to be outstanding obligations of the Corporation, the 23 authority of this subsection shall cease to be effective.
II.R. 2512-ih 2
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INSURANCE 2
SEC. 6. (a) ArTHORITY TO PROVIDE INSURANCE; 3 SCOPE OF COVERAGE.-(1) The Corporation is authorized 4 to provide insurance under this Act to licensees of nuclear 5 powerplants to supplement the insurance which is available 6 to such licensees from private sources. Such insurance shall 7 provide for payment by the Corporation of the costs of i
i 8 cleanup and rehabilitation associated with onsite property 9 damage folk wing any nuclear incident or other damage to an 10 insured powerplant to the extent that such costs exceed with 11 respect to a single incident the greater of-12 (A) $350,000,000, or 13 (B) S50,000,000 plus the amount of insurance 14 coverage for such costs which the Corporation deter-15 mines to be available from private sources.
16 (2) Payments by the Corporation of insurance under this 17 Act may not exceed, with respect to a single incident, the 18 greator of-19 (A) $2,000,000,000, or 20 (B) a maximum amount determined by the Board l
21 of Directors of the Corporation.
22 (b) COVERAGE REQUIRED.-No operating license may i
23 be issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under the 24 Atomic Energy Act of 1954 for the operation of a nuclear 25 powerplant after the date of the enactment of this Act, and l
H R. 2513.-4h
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-g 11 1 no such license issued before such date shall remain in effect P
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'2 after the date 180 days after such date of enactment, unless 3 the licensee is insured by the Corporation for the risks, and in 4 the amounts, determined under subsection (a) and unless the f,:;
5 licensee has paid the premiums due and payable to the Cor-TE.
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G poration for such insurance in accordance with section 7.
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7 (c) PRoor or Loss.-The Corporation, in its discre-p 8 tion, may require proof of loss or damage before paying any
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9 claim for insurance provided under this Act, and where the Ea 10 Corporation is not satisfied as to the validity of any claim, it
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p 13 PREMIUMS E
14 SEC. 7. (a) RATES.-(1) The Corporation shall pre-15 scribe such insurance premium rates and such coverage IG schedules for the application of those rates as may be neces.
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17 sary to provide sufficient revenue to the fund for the Corpo-18 ration to carry out its functions under this Act.
19 (2) The premium rates charged by the Corporation for 20 any period shall be based on the reserve requirement rat 21 forth in subsection (b) and on the Corporation's assessment of 22 the risk insured. Such assessment shall reflect the experience s
i 23 of the Corporation (including reasonably anticipated experi-3 24 ence) in providing such insurance. In assessing the risk asso-
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25 ciated with each licensee insured, the Corporation shall take 7
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(3) The aggregate amount of premiums paid by all li-j y1 N
j 7 censees insured under this Act shall not be less than i
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8 $150,000,000 per year for each year until the Corporation j
q3jl 9 has established a reserve under subsection (b) in the amount IS 10 of at least $750,000,000.
g) 11 (4) The Corporation shall rebate premiums paid by any f-]
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13 amounts available in the reserve required under subsection if
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14 (b) exceed the greater of $750,000,000 or the amount which C
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16 (b) RESERVE.-In the fund established under section 5, 17 the Corporation shall maintain an actuarily sound reserve il 18 which shall be comprised of the premiums paid under this E
19 section and which shall be available to pay insurance claims 20 made pursuant to insurance agreements entered into under i
4 21 this Act and to make the payments authorized under section
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23 (c) ADDmONAL ASSESSMENT.-Each insurance agree-it 24 ment entered into under this Act shall provide that if the
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13 1 ment entered into under this Act for any amount in excess of 2 the amount available in the fund, each licensee insured shall 3 pay to the Corporation, at such time and in such manner as i
4 may be specified by the Corporation, an additional assess-5 ment to cover such liability.
6 PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY AT 7
THREE MILE ISLAND 8
SEC. 8. (a) INTERAGENCY TASK FonCE.-There is es-9 tablished a Federal interagency task force which shall be
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10 chaired by a representative of the Department of Energy ap-I i'
11 pointed by the Secretary of Energy and which shall consist of 12 the Chairman, a representative of the Nuclear Regulatory 13 Commission appointed by the Chairman of the Commission 14 and a representative of the Securities and Exchange Com-15 mission appointed by the Chairman of the Commission. The d
16 task force shall-(
17 (1) foster and expedite effective communications j
18 between the Federal agencies involved with, and
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21 (2) insure that a contingency plan is prepared to 22 protect public health and safety and to maintain service 23 continuity in the event that the General Public Utility 24 Corporation is unable to carry out its responsibilities in r
i 25 connection with the Three Mile Island Unit 2.
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14 1 The contingency plan shall include preparation of requests 2 for. emergency appropriations or such other resources as may 3 be necessary to carry out emergency activities onsite at 4 Three Mile Island Unit 2.
5 (b) REMEDIAL ACTION AT THREE MILE ISLAND.-(l) p..
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6 In addition to providing insurance under section 6 of this Act, j
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7 the Corporation shall reimburse the General Public Utilities l
8 Company from the amounts available in the fund for 75 per-9 cent of the uninsured. costs incurred by the General Public k;;;
1 10 Utilities Corporation after the date of the enactment of this r.E 11 Act for cleanup associated with onsite property damage at
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Ein 13 (2) Reimbursement may be paid under this section only 14 if the Board of Directors of the Corporation determines
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15 that-16 (A) There has been established a joint Pennsylva-17 nia-New Jersey Utility Commission plan for regulatory 18 and economic actions designed to insure service con-19 tinuity, prompt return of the General Public Utilities
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20 Corporation, or any successor in interest, to economic 21 stability, and the ability to meet the obligations to par i
22 future premium surcharges as provided in subsection
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k 24 (B) The plan referred to in subparagraph (A) is b[
25 reasonably likely to meet the objectives set forth in n.g.;
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subparagraph (A) and is compatible with the following E
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basic principles:
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(i) Financial responsibility. for the accident 4
costs will be shared among those with underlying
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benefited fro'm nuclear power use.
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(ii) State and Federal statutes and regula-
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E 11 (iii) All reasonable State actions to remove r.5 12 economic pressure on the utility will be taken, p
13 such as remission of windfall portions gross re-p i
14 ceipts and purchased power taxes.
15 (iv) The utility and vendor industry have 16 taken all reasonable steps to provide technical, fi-
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17 nancial, and credit assistance to the General L.
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20 by the Pennsylvania and New Jersev Utility g.
21 Commissions to utilize energy conservation and 22 efficiency investments to minimize the cost of 23 service to ratepayers and reduce the need for ad-ji.-
24 ditional generating capacity.
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(vi) Principal creditors of the General Public 2
Utilities Corporation have agreed to provide 3
ample notification and other procedures deemed 4
appropriate by the Board with respect to debt re-5 payment. Such procedures shall be designed to j
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allow ample time for emergency arrangements to l
7 maintain utility service and to protect public 8
health and safety from hazards of the Three Mile O
Island facilities.
10 (c) PREh11Uh1 SURCHARGE AGREE 51ENT.-Payments 11 may be made under this section only if General Public Utili-12 ties enters into an enforceable agreement with the Corpora-13 tion to pay to the Corporation, over such period of time as 14 the Corporation deems suitable, an appropriate premium sur-15 charge sufficient to recover 50 percent of the agigregate 16 amount of the obligations and expenditures incurred by the 17 Corporation in carrying out subsection (a). The time and 18 manner of payment of such premium surcharge shall be es-19 tablished by the Corporation.
20 AUTHORITY OF DEPARTh1ENT OF ENERGY 21 SEC. 9. (a) The Secretary of Energy is authorized to-l 22 (1) provide technical assistance to the Nuclear 23 Regulatory Commission to expedite the licensing and
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I the cleanup of the Three Mile Island facilities and the
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restoration of such facilities to service; 3
(2) provide technical and planning assistance to i
b the Pennsylvan% Public Utility Commission, the New 4
5 Jersey Board of Public Utilities, and to the General p.
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6 Public Utility Corporation to assist in the preparation F
7 of the joint regulatory and economic plan required f.
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under section 8(b)(1) and to assist in the development 9
of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and load f
10 management proposals associated with such plan; and F
11 (3) enter into agreements and financial arrange-l
[f 12 ments with the General Public Utilities Corporation for 1
13 purposes of utilizing any data the Secretary determines 14 to be valuable in understanding and enhancing nuclear 4
15 reactor safety.
16 STATE LAW CONCERNING LIABILITY; SUBROGATION 17 SEC.10. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), noth-18 ing in this Act shall be construed to affect the liability of any
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I 19 person under otherwise applicable law for any damages or 20 other costs for which insurance coverage is provided by the 21 Corporation under this Act.
22 (b)(1) Where any person is liable under otherwise appli-23 cable law to the insured licensee for any costs for which the Corporation provides insurance coverage to the licensee, the 24 25 Corporation shall be subrogated to all rights, claims, and 18 St.1*.I14h Cl
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(2) The Corporation shall commence an action against 3
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5 funds recovered by the Corporation in any such action shall ff t
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6 be deposited in the fund established under section 5.
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(3) Each insurance policy written by the Corporation 7
i riiti 8 shall contain a subrogation clause consistent with the terms (s
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