____________ 

POLICY ISSUE

(Information) 

January 30, 2015 SECY-15-0014

FOR: The Commissioners 

 

FROM: Mark A. Satorius 

 Executive Director for Operations 

SUBJECT: ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE AND ESTIMATED RESOURCES 

FOR A POWER REACTOR DECOMMISSIONING RULEMAKING 

PURPOSE: 

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide an anticipated schedule and an estimate of the 

resources required for the completion of a decommissioning rulemaking, as directed by staff 

requirements memorandum (SRM) SECY-14-0066, “Request by Dominion Energy 

Kewaunee, Inc., for Exemptions from Certain Emergency Planning Requirements,” dated 

August 7, 2014 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) 

Accession No. ML14219A366), and by SRM SECY-14-0118, “Request by Duke Energy 

Florida, Inc., for Exemptions from Certain Emergency Planning Requirements,” dated 

December 30, 2014 (ADAMS Accession No. ML14364A111). 

CONTACTS: Jason Carneal, NRR/DPR 

 301-415-1451 

William Huffman, NRR/DORL 

 301-415-2046 
The Commissioners - 2 - 

BACKGROUND: 

Following a period of 15 years without a power reactor permanently shutting down, 5 operating 

reactor units have permanently shut down over the last 2 years and entered a decommissioning 

phase. This has prompted the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff and 

stakeholders to refocus on the need for a rulemaking on decommissioning. Many of the 

licensing actions for the recent permanently shut down reactors involved requests for 

exemptions from existing regulations. Developing a decommissioning rule will provide a more 

efficient and predictable decommissioning transition process. 

In addition, such an approach would support the principles of good regulation, including 

openness, clarity, and reliability. With this objective in mind and based on Commission direction 

in the SRM SECY-14-0118, the staff has begun efforts to develop a rulemaking on 

decommissioning. 

In SRM SECY-14-0118, the Commission stated that the staff should perform the following: 

• Proceed with rulemaking on decommissioning; 

• Set an objective of early 2019 for completion of this rulemaking; and 

• Continue processing current and pending applications for decommissioning 

amendments and exemptions until that regulatory work is complete. 

Schedule and Resources for a Reactor Decommission Rulemaking

Per the SRM direction, the staff is working on a decommissioning rulemaking in a manner that 

will not impact the current decommissioning transition licensing activities. The staff plans to 

conduct the rulemaking expeditiously and issue the final rule as soon as practicable. However, it 

will be extremely challenging to complete the decommissioning rulemaking in early 2019 without 

impacting the current decommissioning and non-decommissioning emergency planning (EP) 

licensing activities because of competing skill sets needed for both activities. To provide for 

timely progress on both activities, the staff will initially conduct preliminary rulemaking activities in 

parallel with the licensing actions, and increase its focus on the rulemaking as the licensing 

actions are completed. The preliminary activities include continuing to develop lessons learned 

that will support the rulemaking regulatory basis, consulting with the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency (FEMA), identifying resource needs, and developing a detailed schedule for 

the rulemaking effort. The staff anticipates this approach will help expedite the rulemaking 

process but that there is a high likelihood that the final rule may not be issued until sometime in 

calendar year (CY) 2020. 
The Commissioners -3- 

The following assumptions are key to the staff’s ability to complete this rulemaking: 

• Interactions and coordination with relevant Federal, State, and local agencies remain 

timely; 

• Development of the technical bases for complex areas (e.g., changes to offsite EP, 

physical security, and liability insurance coverage requirements) does not introduce 

unforeseen challenges; 

• No additional reactors, other than Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, permanently 

shut down during the rulemaking period; 

• A standard 75-day public comment period is provided on the proposed rule; 

• The lessons learned do not identify issues that significantly impact the scope of the 

rulemaking; and 

• Neither the public nor the NRC identify the need to supplement or re-notice the proposed 

rule. 

The staff also notes that receipt of significant or complex public comments on the proposed rule 

could extend the final rule schedule. 

[ 

 ]. The staff 

estimates that resources in excess of 25 full-time equivalents and $2 million in contract support 

will be required through CY 2019 for completion of a decommissioning rule. These resources 

will be primarily drawn from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, the Office of Nuclear 

Security and Incident Response, and the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. 

These estimates do not include resources needed to complete the ongoing decommissioning 

licensing activities. The resources needed to accomplish a decommissioning rulemaking are 

substantially higher than typical rulemakings because of the complex scope and breadth of the 

regulatory changes to be considered, and the expected high-level of public interest, comments, 

and interactions. 

Impacts of Decommissioning Rulemaking on Ongoing Staff Work

To complete the decommissioning rulemaking, the staff will evaluate reallocation of resources in 

FY 2016 and beyond. The staff will reallocate resources in FY 2015 as described in the 

enclosure. Potential impacts in FY 2016 could include delays in the development of the 

following: 

• NRC guidance documents and conduct of emergency preparedness research necessary 

to support the revision of NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1, “Criteria for Preparation and 

Evaluation of Radiological Emergency Response Plans and Preparedness in Support of 

Nuclear Power Plants,” selected Fukushima lessons learned (lower tier items); 
The Commissioners -4- 

• Risk Management Regulatory Framework; and 

• Updates to overall decommissioning program guidance NUREGs. 

The staff will conduct a workload reprioritization that will defer/limit other mission-related work [ 

] to support the decommissioning rulemaking. The staff plans to develop a detailed schedule, 

resource estimates, and projected impacts on other NRC mission-related work by the third 

quarter in CY 2015. 

Based on lessons learned with the five recent shutdown reactors, the staff had planned for the 

near-term to develop guidance intended to facilitate more effective planning activities for the 

decommissioning transition process (in addition to any guidance associated with the 

decommissioning rule), and for more efficient NRC staff review and processing of 

decommissioning transition licensing actions. The initiation of a decommissioning rulemaking will 

limit the staff’s ability to develop such guidance documents and templates that could benefit any 

additional power reactors that permanently shut down before completion of the rulemaking 

(e.g., Oyster Creek has indicated it plans to shut down in CY 2019). However, the Nuclear Energy 

Institute (NEI) has indicated that it is developing comparable industry guidance. The staff’s goal is 

to continue to engage with NEI on its guidance; however, the staff’s focus on developing the 

rulemaking may also impact its availability to review and potentially endorse the industry guidance. 

COMMITMENT: 

The staff is proceeding with a rulemaking on decommissioning. The staff will maintain its focus on 

the current decommissioning transition licensing actions while proceeding on an optimistic 

schedule to finalize the decommissioning rule in CY 2019. In the near-term, the staff will develop 

detailed schedule and resource needs by the third quarter of CY 2015, [ 

 

 ]. The staff will keep the 

Commission informed of any issues that could result in delays to the anticipated decommissioning 

rulemaking schedule. 

COORDINATION:

The Office of the General Counsel reviewed this package and has no legal objection. The Office 

of the Chief Financial Officer reviewed this package. Consistent with the memorandum of 

understanding between the NRC and FEMA, the NRC staff provided FEMA with a copy of this 

paper for comment. FEMA indicated it had no issues with the paper, but it would be concerned if 

the rulemaking effort causes a delay in joint NRC-FEMA efforts to update NUREG-0654/FEMAREP-1. NRC staff will continue to engage FEMA on the EP aspects of the decommissioning 

rulemaking, as it is developed, to ensure impacts to other work are fully considered.
The Commissioners -5- 

The memorandum and its enclosure are designated as Official Use Only-Sensitive Internal 

Information because they contain predecisional and budget information. The memorandum and 

its enclosure are limited to NRC unless the Commission determines otherwise. 

 /RA Michael Johnson for/

 Mark A. Satorius 

Executive Director 

 for Operations 

Enclosure: 

Fiscal Year 2015 Resource 

 Reallocations 
Enclosure 

FISCAL YEAR 2015 RESOURCE REALLOCATIONS 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will make the following resource reallocations in 

Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 to support the preliminary decommissioning rulemaking efforts described 

in this paper. 

The rulemaking titled “Part 50.46(a), Decoupling Loss of Offsite Power/ Loss of Coolant 

Accident ” was put on hold in FY 2015 pending developments related to the Risk Management 

Regulatory Framework. Also, the rulemaking titled “Additional Decommissioning Funding 

Assurance” will not take place in FY 2015. Therefore, the Office of Nuclear Reactor 

Regulation (NRR) will reallocate 2.0 full-time equivalents [ 

 ]. 

The staff will reallocate 0.5 FTE [ 

 ]. The 0.5 FTE represents excess FY 2015 resources that resulted from a 

decrease in licensing workload related to the termination of Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

research and test reactor (RTR), the completion of the approval of the Veterans AdministrationOmaha RTR Decommissioning Plan, and the soon-to-be terminated University of Michigan 

license termination. 

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