The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled three days of meetings next month on the draft regulatory basis for its 2019 decommissioning rulemaking.
The meetings from May 8-10 at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., follow the March publication of the draft document and the anticipated late-April release of the preliminary draft regulatory analysis for the rulemaking.
“Specifically, the objective of this meeting is to enhance external stakeholders’ understanding of these two documents to inform development of comment submissions,” according to the NRC notice posted Wednesday. “During this meeting, the NRC staff will provide presentations on the draft regulatory basis and the preliminary draft regulatory analysis. Members of the public are also encouraged to ask questions and provide feedback during this meeting. However, the NRC is not taking formal comments at this meeting.”
The NRC intends through its rulemaking to clarify and improve the process of decommissioning nuclear plants via amendments to current regulations, with an emphasis on reducing the need for exemptions from safety rules at plants that have shut down. The draft regulatory basis allows the regulator to move forward with developing regulations in specific areas concerning decommissioning, including trust funds that pay for the work.
Public comments are being accepted through June 13 at www.regulations.gov (Docket ID NRC-2015-0070).
The meeting is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on May 8; 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 9; and 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; all at 11555 Rockville Pike. Topics to be discussed include current approaches to decommissioning, decommissioning trust funds, cybersecurity, and on-site and off-site insurance and indemnity agreements.
