 What is decommissioning? Decommissioning is the process of removing a commercial nuclear power plant from service so that the land may be used for something else. Decommissioning is a complex process that can take up to 60 years. Hi, my name is Bruce Watson. I'm the chief of the reactor decommissioning branch at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Decommissioning is the safe dismantling and decontamination of a nuclear facility. In this particular case, we're talking about nuclear reactors. And so the reactor is actually disassembled. The material is packaged and shipped off site as low-level waste, all the radioactive material, and then the structure is decontaminated and such that the license can be terminated. Once the licensee demonstrates to us that the residual radioactivity meet our limits. How is a nuclear power plant decommissioned? Once the company decides to close the plant, it certifies to the NRC that it has permanently ceased operations and removed the fuel from the reactor. The plant is no longer allowed to operate. The company then has up to two years to submit its decommissioning plan to the NRC. A power company has two options. SafeStore, which is essentially leaving the property untouched for several years, says that the radioactivity decays considerably, making final cleanup easier and safer, and immediate decon, which involves removing buildings and infrastructure and decontaminating the land to level safe for public use. Most operators combine the SafeStore and Decon approaches. Where the decommissioning plans would include basically three things. The first is the strategy, which the licensee is going to use to decommission the plant. Second is the schedule for the decommissioning, and it also provides us with an updated cost estimate for the radiological decommissioning of the site. And then lastly, it provides us an affirmation that the environmental impacts that have already been analyzed for the site will or will not be adversely affected by the decommissioning, and typically they are not. The benefits of waiting 50 years to do the decommissioning is that the radiation levels in the plant will be significantly reduced to only about 1% of those that would have been when the plant was shut down. This represents the significant savings and radiation exposure to the workers who dismantle the plant. What happens to the nuclear waste? The spit fuel from the reactor is transferred from the spit fuel pool to dry cask for storage on site until another option such as a permanent disposal facility becomes available. Contaminated materials such as concrete, hyping, metals, and even soil are generally disposed of in a low-level waste disposal facility. Some of the more hazardous material may be stored by the Department of Energy or ultimate disposal. What is the NRC's role? The NRC oversees each stage of the cleanup and conducts final surveys to verify the site has been cleaned to our strict specifications. Once the NRC terminates the license, a bulk of the site may be used for other purposes such as a new non-nuclear power plant or even a public park. Can the public get involved? The NRC holds public meetings near the site to explain the agency's review process and receive public comment on the decommissioning plan. Members of the public may also request a formal hearing on the plan. The NRC encourages licensees to form community advisory groups to enhance public involvement and improve the transparency of the process. At various points during decommissioning, most notably near the end as the cleanup is finished, the NRC will hold additional meetings to update the public on the company's progress. The public is invited to provide comments at two specific points during the decommissioning process. The first one is when the utility submits what's called the post shutdown decommissioning activities report. We hold a public meeting to solicit comments from the public. We're interested in any any additional information, which the licensee has not provided to us. Second opportunity for public involvement is when the license termination plan is submitted for a reactor. It is required to be submitted two years before the licensee will be submitting their request to terminate the license. So this could be far off in the future depending on the licensee schedule. For more information on the status of current decommissioning facilities, visit the NRC website at www.nrc.gov.