Table 1: Official actions taken by the NRC to address electricity utility restructuring and deregulation
1.	NRC Briefing Session, 14 December 1995. NRC public meeting in which industry representatives (federal and state regulators and industry and investment officials) briefed the commission on restructuring issues.
2.	NRC Briefing Session, 5 January 1996. NRC public meeting in which the NRC staff briefed the commission on its near term, mid term, and long term action plan to address restructuring issues.
3.	Financial Assurance Requirements for Decommissioning Nuclear Power Reactors, Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), 8 April 1996 (61 Fed. Reg. 15 427, 1996). The ANPR indicated that the NRC was considering clarifying its regulatory definition of 'electricity utility' in light of restructuring. It also indicated that the NRC was considering holding companies jointly and severally liable for decommissioning costs, a viewpoint it later rejected in the subsequent proposed rule approved for publication at the end of June 1997 (see point 11 below).
4.	Action Plan for NRC Response to Electric Utility Industry Restructuring and Economic Deregulation, 15 May 1996. This document indicates NRC's interest in financial qualifications, decommissioning funding and antitrust reviews. Rulemaking is contemplated concerning NRC approval for all licensee corporate changes that significantly reduce assets or recourse to rate recovery. Of considerable interest is the indication that NRC is considering requiring its approval for a licensee sell-off of non-nuclear assets such as fossil plants or gas operations. The action plan includes schedules for revision of standard review plans (draft 8/96 and final 6/97). With regard to rulemaking, the plan contemplates determining the need for rulemaking by mid 1997, with a schedule to be determined.
5.	NRC Briefing Session, 30 July 1996. NRC public meeting in which the NRC staff briefed the commission on the status of NRC's actions in response to electricity utility restructuring and deregulation.
6.	Final Policy Statement on the Restructuring and Economic Deregulation of the Electric Utility Industry, 19 August 1997 (62 Fed. Reg. 44 071). The NRC notes that co-owners generally divide costs and output from their facilities on a pro rata basis according to the respective ownership shares of the co-owners. In the Final Policy Statement, however, the NRC acknowledges that it "has implicitly accepted this practice in the past and that it should continue to be the operative practice" in the future, but it "reserves the right, in highly unusual situations where adequate protection of public health and safety would be compromised if such action were not taken, to consider imposing joint and several liability on co-owners... when one or more co-owners have defaulted". This position conflicts, at least in tone if not substance, with that taken by the NRC in the proposed rule for decommissioning funding that there is "no need to impose an additional regulatory obligation of joint liability on co-owners" with respect to decommissioning funding. (see point 11 below).
7.	Draft Standard Review Plans on Antitrust and Financial Qualifications and Decommissioning Funding Assurance, 27 December 1996 (61 Fed. Reg. 68 309, 1996). These draft standard review plans reflect NRC's current regulations and do not provide the final NRC position.
8.	NRC Briefing Session, 23 April 1997. NRC public meeting in which industry representatives (federal agency and industry officials) briefed the commission on electricity grid reliability issues, including the operation of power pools and voluntary grid reliability councils, and the anticipated effects of restructuring.
9.	NRC Briefing Session, 24 April 1997. NRC public meeting in which the NRC staff and industry representatives (federal and state regulators and industry officials) briefed the commission on emerging issues related to electricity utility restructuring. The NRC staff stated it will develop a paper identifying policy options to address general financial qualifications. Grid reliability, antitrust review, and foreign ownership limitations were also identified as emerging issues that the staff should address. The commission is considering seeking legislation to eliminate its anti-trust review requirements. The staff stated its intention to establish clearer standards on limitations of foreign ownership of domestic nuclear power plants.
10.	NRC Staff Meeting, 19 June 1997. NRC staff public meeting in which the NRC staff presented the status of its activities addressing grid reliability and utility restructuring. The commission requested the staff to address the impact of restructuring on grid reliability and evaluate the possible impact of decreased grid reliability on station blackout analysis for nuclear power plants. The staff stated its intent to develop a task action plan defining the steps it will take to evaluate the grid reliability issue.
11.	Proposed Rule on Financial Assurance Requirements for Decommissioning Nuclear Power Reactors, 30 June 1997. The proposed rule would change the regulatory definition of an electricity utility to include entities that recover the cost of electricity "indirectly through another non-bypassable charge mechanism" in addition to traditional cost of service regulation. This new definition would encompass decommis-sioning funding through legislated stranded cost recovery mechanisms such as non-bypassable wire charges on ratepayers in the nuclear power plant's original service area. The proposed rule would also require nuclear plant licensees to periodically report to the NRC on the status of their decommissioning funds and changes in their trust fund agreements. In developing the proposed rule, the NRC determined that joint and several liability for decommissioning costs is not appropriate and it was not included in the proposed rule, as originally considered in the April 1996 ANPR.

Electricity Restructuring in the USA and its Effects on the Nuclear Industry:
Milton B. Whitfield

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