On December 1, our Washington, DC, office hosted an all-day roundtable where Morgan Lewis lawyers, in-house counsel, and business leaders from companies involved in nuclear energy decommissioning met to discuss key issues and best practices for large nuclear decommissioning projects. Discussions focused on several key industry issues, including the following:
- License stewardship and decommissioning general contractor transaction models
- Project labor agreements and employee benefits
- Tax issues unique to decommissioning
- Community engagement
- Environmental permitting and cleanup standards
- The current status of decommissioning rulemaking and guidelines
- Implications of decommissioning on spent fuel claims
- The completeness and accuracy of reporting
The Morgan Lewis lawyers presenting at the roundtable included energy partners Paul Bessette, Stephen Burdick, Lewis Csedrik, John Matthews, and Ingrid Myers; employee benefits partner Althea Day; environmental partners Chris Amandes and Ella Foley Gannon; labor and employment partner Jonathan Fritts; litigation partner Brad Fagg; and tax partner Paul Gordon.
Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Stephen Burns gave a presentation during lunch. He spoke about NRC lessons learned from recent (and ongoing) decommissioning projects, the importance of early licensee engagement, and global trends in decommissioning. Read his full remarks.