Recent Trends in the Adequacy of Nuclear Plant Decommissioning Funding.

Williams, D. G.

Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee

关键词: Decommissioning;    Nuclear power plants;    Funds;    Assessments;    Radioactive waste management;   

RP-ID  :  DE2004828664

学科分类：工程和技术（综合）

美国|英语

来源: National Technical Reports Library

【 摘 要 】

Concerned about the potential cost and sufficiency of funds to decommission the nation's nuclear power plants, the Congress asked the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) to assess the adequacy, as of December 31, 1997, of electric utilities. funds to eventually decommission their plants. GAO's report (GAO/RCED-99-75) on this issue addressed three alternative assumption scenarios--baseline (most likely), optimistic, and pessimistic; and was issued in May 1999. This paper updates GAO's baseline assessment of fund adequacy in 1997, and extends the analysis through 2000. In 2000, we estimate that the present value cost to decommission the nation's nuclear plants is about $35 billion; utility fund balances are about $29 billion. Both our two measures of funding adequacy for utilities are on average not only much above ideal levels, but also overall have greatly improved since 1997.