The legislature recognizes that in order to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of the public and of current and future generations, a costly and comprehensive decommissioning procedure is necessary at the end of the useful or serviceable life of nuclear electric generating facilities. Because the costs are substantial and because these costs are the direct and predictable result of operating such a facility and should not have to be borne by the state, it is found to be in the public interest to require that adequate fiscal responsibility be established to ensure proper and safe decommissioning, and also to ensure subsequent surveillance of a nuclear reactor site to the extent necessary to prevent such sites from constituting a hazard to current or future generations. The legislature, therefore, hereby establishes a procedure that will provide assurance of adequate funding by each owner of a facility for decommissioning.
Source. 1971, 357:1. 1981, 109:1. 1991, 295:2. 2001, 193:3, eff. Sept. 3, 2001.