Nuclear reactor decommissioning: an analysis of the regulatory environments

Technical Report · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5150096· OSTI ID:5150096

Cantor, R.

In the next several decades, the electric utility industry will be faced withthe retirement of 50,000 megawatts (mW) of nuclear capacity. Responsibility for the financial and technical burdens this activity entails has been delegated to the utilities operating the reactors. However, the operators will have to perform the tasks of reactor decommissioning within the regulatory environment dictated by federal, state and local regulations. The purpose of this study was to highlight some of the current and likely trends in regulations and regulatory practices that will significantly affect the costs, technical alternatives and financing schemes encountered by the electric utilities and their customers. To identify significant trends and practices among regulatory bodies and utilities, a reviw of these factors was undertaken at various levels in the regulatory hierarchy. The technical policies were examined in reference to their treatment of allowed technical modes, restoration of the plant site including any specific recognition of the residual radioactivity levels, and planning requirements. The financial policies were examined for specification of acceptable financing arrangements, mechanisms which adjust for changes in the important parameters used to establish the fund, tax and rate-base treatments of the payments to and earnings on the fund, and whether or not escalation and/or discounting were considered in the estimates of decommissioning costs. The attitudes of regulators toward financial risk, the tax treatment of the decommissioning fund, and the time distribution of the technical mode were found to have the greatest effect on the discounted revenue requirements. Under plausible assumptions, the cost of a highly restricted environment is about seven times that of the minimum revenue requirement environment for the plants that must be decommissioned in the next three decades.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5150096
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-9638; ON: DE87001609
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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