Status of the NRC’s Decommissioning Program

On July 21, 1997, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission published the final rule on Radiological Criteria for License Termination (the License Termination Rule) as Subpart E to 10 CFR Part 20. NRC regulations require that materials licensees submit Decommissioning Plans to support the decommissioning of its facility if it is required by license condition, or if the procedures and activities necessary to carry out the decommissioning have not been approved by NRC and these procedures could increase the potential health and safety impacts to the workers or the public. NRC regulations also require that reactor licensees submit Post-shutdown Decommissioning Activities Reports and License Termination Plans to support the decommissioning of nuclear power facilities. This paper provides an update on the status of the NRC’s decommissioning program. It discusses the status of permanently shut-down commercial power reactors, complex decommissioning sites, and sites listed in the Site Decommissioning Management Plan. The paper provides the status of various tools and guidance the NRC is developing to assist licensees during decommissioning, including a Standard Review Plan for evaluating plans and information submitted by licensees to support the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the DandD Screen software for determining the potential doses from residual radioactivity. Finally, it discusses the status of the staff’s current efforts to streamline the decommissioning process.