What is the role of the NRC?

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.

Has the NRC ever taken action on changing a decommissioning report?

the NRC has essentially cut itself off from any ability to mitigate, direct, or understand the site specific issues around water discharge.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

I know I wouldn't trust checking one of them every 5 years.

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.

the proposed rule is penny wise for nuclear plants and operators, but pound foolish for communities which have already been largely ignored.

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 appreciate that. But at that stage, it is like having a mechanic that checks to make sure you have all four tires on a car, and tells you you are good to go without checking to make sure that those tires don't have a hole in them. It is…

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

allows licensees to make virtually all of the major decisions without NRC approval or meaningful public input.