November 30, 2015 

The Honorable Edward J. Markey 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Senator Markey: 

 On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to the 

October 15, 2015, letter from you and your colleagues seeking assurances that the remaining 

period of operation at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and its subsequent decommissioning will 

be in compliance with NRC regulations and protective of public health and safety. You also 

asked that decommissioning occur quickly and that the NRC encourage measures to assist 

workers who lose their jobs due to the reactor shutdown. 

As you noted in your letter, Pilgrim has had some long-standing performance issues of 

low-to-moderate safety significance that have moved the plant into the Multiple/Repetitive 

Degraded Cornerstone Column (Column 4) of the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Program Action 

Matrix. Entergy’s decision to shut down Pilgrim no later than June 1, 2019, does not affect the 

NRC’s ongoing increased oversight at the facility or the licensee’s obligation to implement an 

effective performance improvement plan by taking actions necessary to achieve sustained 

improvements. The goal of NRC oversight is to ensure that, through the remaining period of 

operation, Entergy operates its facility in a safe and secure manner and remedies the identified 

performance issues. 

 We recognize that States and local communities have a strong interest in the 

decommissioning of nuclear power plants within their boundaries. NRC regulations provide 

interested parties the opportunity to comment on the licensee’s Post-Shutdown 

Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR), which includes decommissioning planning, 

schedule, cost, and environmental impact information, and is submitted to the NRC and the 

affected State(s) prior to or within two years following permanent cessation of operations. State 

and local stakeholders may also comment on the License Termination Plan (LTP), which must 

be submitted at least two years before the license termination date. In addition to taking 

comments on these submissions, the NRC also conducts public meetings in the vicinity of the 

facility following licensee submission of its PSDAR and LTP, and provides an opportunity for a 

hearing regarding the LTP. 

 Further, for many years, the NRC has strongly recommended that licensees involved in 

decommissioning activities form a community committee to obtain local citizen views and 

concerns regarding the decommissioning process and spent fuel storage issues. At most 

decommissioning sites, State and local governments are involved in an advisory capacity, often 

as part of a community engagement panel or other organization aimed at fostering 

communication and information exchange between the licensee and the public. While licensees 

are not required to create a community advisory board, NRC decommissioning guidance 

discusses creation of a site-specific community advisory board and provides recommendations 

for methods of soliciting public advice and contains useful guidance and suggestions for 
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effective public involvement in the decommissioning process that could be adopted by any 

licensee. 

 As your letter recognizes, licensees of facilities undergoing decommissioning have 

requested license amendments from the NRC. Licensees request these license amendments 

so that regulatory requirements reflect the reduced risks of permanently shutdown and defueled 

reactors as compared to operating reactors. Because current NRC emergency planning and 

security regulations address the emergency and security consequences of scenarios at 

operating reactors and not the reduced consequences of emergency and security scenarios at 

permanently defueled reactors, licensees undergoing decommissioning have also sought 

exemptions from emergency planning and security regulations. Exemptions and license 

amendments are part of a well-established NRC process to modify emergency plans and 

security plans commensurate with the site-specific risks that are present during 

decommissioning. A licensee cannot be relieved from NRC requirements unless it provides a 

detailed, technical application to the NRC to support the request and the NRC conducts a 

review to evaluate whether the requested license amendment and/or exemption should be 

granted. In order to grant such requests, the NRC must find that the action requested will not 

present an undue risk to, or will not endanger, the public health and safety and is consistent with 

the common defense and security. 

Regarding requests for exemptions specifically from some of the NRC’s emergency 

planning (EP) requirements, on May 11, 2015, the NRC issued guidance to identify the issues 

that the NRC staff evaluates in reviewing requests for exemptions. While the guidance is 

intended to assist the NRC staff in reviewing EP exemption requests, it also serves to describe 

and make publicly available the methods that the NRC staff considers acceptable for use in 

implementing specific parts of the agency’s regulations, such as those governing exemption 

requests. In developing this guidance, the NRC relied upon previous exemption review 

experience, informed by the most recent spent fuel pool studies, and comments received during 

an extended public review and comment period. 

Similarly, the NRC issued staff guidance earlier this year to ensure clear and consistent 

reviews of a licensee's request for licensing actions and amendments, the use of alternative 

measures, and requests for exemption from security regulations for nuclear power reactors after 

permanent cessation of plant operations. It includes consideration of past experience and 

lessons learned from technical evaluations of previous security exemption requests. 

 The NRC is committed to ensuring that the radiological decommissioning of the site is 

completed safely and within the time allotted by regulations. To meet this commitment, the 

NRC has established a comprehensive, regulation-based decommissioning funding program to 

provide reasonable assurance that sufficient funding will be available for radiological 

decommissioning of all U.S. commercial nuclear reactors, which applies from the time of initial 

licensing through license termination. Compliance with these regulations is verified through a 

broad monitoring program that includes a licensee’s submittal of periodic decommissioning 

funding status reports and may be informed by onsite inspections of a licensee’s 

decommissioning activities. 

By regulation, power reactor licensees are allowed 60 years to complete 

decommissioning. Scientific studies have concluded that 50 years is the optimal time for 

radioactive decay and would result in radiation dose rates being reduced to 1%-2% and 
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radioactive waste volumes being reduced to about 10% compared to the levels that exist at the 

time of permanent plant shutdown. Sixty years was determined to be appropriate based on 50 

years to allow radioactive decay and 10 years to complete the decommissioning. NRC 

regulations are flexible and allow the licensee to perform immediate dismantling and 

decontamination (DECON), or pursue a monitored mode that allows the radioactivity to decay 

before the plant is dismantled and the property decontaminated (SAFSTOR), at the licensee’s 

discretion, within the 60 year period. A third option (ENTOMB) permanently encases 

radioactive contaminants onsite in structurally sound material such as concrete. 

 Finally, your request that the NRC encourage measures to support communities, 

particularly workers whose jobs will be lost, is beyond the scope of the NRC’s statutory mission 

under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. The NRC has requirements to establish 

funding for radiological decommissioning, but has no authority to provide or mandate economic 

assistance to communities that may be affected by adverse economic impacts when an 

operating plant shuts down. 

 I appreciate you sharing your views on this important matter. Please be assured that the 

NRC is committed to overseeing the safe and secure operation and decommissioning of Pilgrim. 

If you need additional information, please contact me or Eugene Dacus, Director of the Office of 

Congressional Affairs, at (301) 415-1776. 

Sincerely, 

/RA/ 

 Stephen G. Burns 
Identical letter sent to: 

The Honorable Edward J. Markey 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

The Honorable Elizabeth Warren 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

The Honorable William R. Keating 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable James P. McGovern 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Niki Tsongas 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Katherine Clark 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Stephen F. Lynch 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy, III 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Michael E. Capuano 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Seth Moulton 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Richard E. Neal 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515