Office of the Inspector General’s Assessment of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Decommissioning Trust Fund Oversight

Crowe identified areas where opportunities exist for the NRC to improve its oversight of decommissioning trust funds (DTFs).  
Specifically, the four areas focus on creating policies and procedures, workflows, and other support to enhance the oversight of the use of DTFs: 
1. Additional monitoring or detailed review on the use of the DTFs; 
2. Additional financial oversight assistance when reviewing and monitoring the use of DTFs; 
3. Documented policies, procedures, and workflows; and,  
4. Master list of sites with license conditions. 
We also identified best practices developed by the NRC for the use of DTFs when licensees are restarting nuclear reactors that
were formerly in decommissioning status.  Key best practices include a universal process for establishing a regulatory hold
point, tracking the level of effort, and instituting a license condition for the restarting plant related to the use of its DTFs.