ML20028H534
| ML20028H534 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/13/1990 |
| From: | Curtiss NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Chilk S NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY) |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9101090089 | |
| Download: ML20028H534 (2) | |
Text
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4 RELEASED TO THE PDR s
N0TATI0N V0TEj y3/97 g
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' ca:6 inir/s RESPONSE SHEET T0:
SAMUEL J. CHILK, SECRETARY OF THE COMMISSION FROM:
C0W4ISSIONER CURTISS
SUBJECT:
SECY-90-386.- NRC POLICY ON THE ACCUMULATION PERIOD FOR DECOW4ISSIONING FUNDS FOR PREMATURELY SHUT DOWN REACTORS x
x APPROVED in part DISAPPROVED in a rt.
ABSTAIN NOT PARTICIPATING REQUEST DISCUSSION C0W4ENTS:
see-attached comments.
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SIGNAT0ilE December 13, 1990 RELEASE VOTE
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DATE WITHHOLD VOTE
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ENTERED ON "AS" YEs x
No 76#22883%8a!'
'\\T CORRESPONDENCE PDR
4 Commissioner Curtiss' Comments on SECY-90-386:
I believe that the staff's proposal for a five-year decommissioning fund accumulation period is unnecessarily arbitrary and, indeed may, in particular instances, lead to reduced confidence that a licensee will have the requisite decommissioning funds on hand when necessary.
For this reason, I would instead recommend 6 case-by-case approach for prematurely shut down reactors, under which the staff would -- (1) determine when the bulk of the decommissioning funds likely will be needed by a particular licensee; (ii) consider the financial health of the particular licensee and the means that licensee has to accumulate funds in the necessary time period; and (iii) evaluate whether a requirement that a license accumulate funds within a given period of time will impose an inordinate financial burden on the licensee that might undermine the licensee's ability to accumulate needed funds and perhaps jeopardize the licensee's ability to safely maintain the plant.
Such an approach would have the following advantages:
1.
It would comport with the approach that the Commission has taken for those plants that were permanently shut down before the current decommissioning rules became effective.
2.
It would allow the NRC to tailor the decommissioning fund accumulation requirements in a manner that will best provide reasonable assurance of fund availability based on the situation that obtains for the particular licensee.
For the foregoing reasons, I disapprove the staff's proposed Option C and, instead, approve Option D.
I would propose that option D be implemented through rulemaking to r.ake it clear that the decommissioning fund accumulation period for licensees who prematurely shut down_will be determined on a case-by-case basis considering the factors described above.
I also approve the staff's proposals on Subsidiary Issues (1) and (2).
.