Following a two-year hiatus, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has resumed issuing license renewals for nuclear power plants in the nation. On October 20, the NRC renewed the operating licenses for Pennsylvania's Limerick Generating Station Units 1 and 2, extending their license expiration dates by 20 years, to 2044 and 2049.
With this action, the NRC has granted license renewals
providing a 20-year extension to a total of 74 of the 100
operating reactors in the U.S. Nuclear power accounted for
20 percent of total power sector electricity generation in
2013, according to the Energy Information Administration
(EIA).
NRC has the authority to issue initial operating licenses
for commercial nuclear power plants for a period of 40
years. The decision to apply for an operating license
renewal is made by nuclear power plant owners. NRC renews
operating licenses for a period of 20 years. To date, no
applications for a second, or subsequent, license renewal,
which could extend nuclear plant operating lives to 80
years, have been filed.
Renewing an operating license is contingent on several
factors, including the safe management and disposal of
waste. The NRC must determine that it has reasonable
confidence that spent nuclear fuel can and will, in due
course, be disposed of safely. This is known as waste
confidence. Waste confidence enables the NRC to license new
reactors or renew their operating licenses without examining
the effects of extended waste storage for each individual
site pending ultimate disposal.
In June 2012, following the termination of the repository
program at
Yucca Mountain, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit struck down certain provisions
of NRC's Waste Confidence Rule and stated that NRC should
have analyzed the environmental consequences of never
building a permanent waste repository.
In response, the NRC issued an order in August 2012 that
suspended actions related to issuing license renewals as
well as new operating licenses, although the nuclear power
industry continued to submit applications for license
renewals. On September 18, 2014, the NRC issued the revised
and renamed Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel rule,
which became effective on October 20. With the issuance of
the revised rule, the NRC may now resume issuing license
renewals as well as new operating licenses.
NRC is currently reviewing license renewal applications for
17 reactors, including one for
Indian Point Unit 2. Although the September 2013
expiration date of the original 40-year operating license
for that plant is already past, NRC rules allow for
continued operation of a reactor until the NRC completes its
review of a pending license renewal if the application was
submitted at least five years before the current license
expires.
Indian Point Unit 2, located on the Hudson River north of
New York City, currently continues to operate according to
this process, known as timely renewal. To date, Indian Point
Unit 2 is the only reactor that has entered the process of
timely renewal.
NRC also expects to receive license renewal applications
from seven more reactors between 2015 and 2018. Plans for a
plant have not yet been announced; however, license
expiration for this plant is not a near-term issue.
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