But I think you will find that the answer is in the negative.

I agree, it makes more sense to me to conduct an environmental review and give the public...an opportunity to weigh in before the decommissioning process begins.

So right now, under this decommissioning proposed rule, assuming no license transfer happens, is there a requirement that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must consider and respond to public comments on the decommissioning plant?

the costs of decommissioning power plants significantly exceed the NRC's site specific cost estimate for these plants.

Without a viable solution for the long term storage of nuclear waste, it is clear that spent fuel will remain in dry casks at independent spent fuel storage installations for longer than originally anticipated.

I want to thank my Ranking Member, Senator Jim Inhofe, and the Committee on Environment and Public Works Chairman Tom Carper and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito, for their support in holding this important field hearing.

What is the role of the NRC?

For years, I have called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do more to respond to the concerns of residents around decommissioning nuclear plants, but time and time again, those calls have been ignored.

I am going to be organizing, obviously, my Senate colleagues to send that message to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In the latest version of the proposed decommissioning rule, the NRC would have no ability, none, to approve, change, or deny plants' decommissioning proposals known as post-shutdown decommissioning activity reports.

Well, I thank the NRC for extending the comment period on the rule to August. We appreciate that.

So I think for everyone here today you have just said something very important to them, which is that you said, you will not discharge the water unless you have the consent of the stakeholders.

State and local shareholders shouldn't have to sit quietly and accept a decommissioning plan that could determine their safety, security, and economic future for decades to come without having a voice today.

I hope the NRC takes this opportunity to improve the rule.

I am deeply troubled that the proposed decommissioning rule would essentially codify the process of regulating by exemption.

we are setting a precedent. There is a minimum balance, and that the funding is there, and that it is guaranteed.

Just so that people can understand, if Entergy, the owner of the plant, had kept ownership and had begun the decommissioning, the State of Massachusetts would not have been able to intervene.

We have to make sure that all of those promises are kept.