3 NRC Requirements for Decommissioning

This chapter focuses on decontamination activities at nuclear and radiological facilities regulated by the NRC. If a state is an NRC Agreement State, certain nuclear-related facilities (excluding federal facilities and nuclear power reactors) may be regulated through the relevant individual state agency.

The NRC normally accomplishes its regulatory function by issuing and then enforcing the provisions of a license. It licenses and regulates nuclear reactors (both power and nonpower generating) and over 6,000 radioactive material licensees (NRC 2003a). The NRC also regulates several DOE facilities, either by mutual agreement or by specific statute. A relevant example of statute regulation is the licensing of the permanent geologic repository at Yucca Mountain for the disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level waste (HLW).