Regulatory perspectives on nuclear power plant life extension

Several years ago, the NRC undertook to develop licensing guidance related to renewal of operating licenses beyond their statutory 40 year term. Presently the NRC is developing a regulatory framework under which utilities could apply for license renewals. In developing this process, we have considered technical and environmental issues which would have to be addressed before a license renewal application could be submitted. Specific examples of these technical issues would include the definition of the licensing basis and required documentation, maintenance programs, application of the backfit rule and the use of probabilistic risk analyses. Examples of environmental issues and procedural issues include the content requirements of revised environmental impact statements and the requirements of National Environmental Protection Act as well as public hearing issues. This paper presents a discussion of the nature of the regulatory issues and provides some insight into how NRC may address the regulatory impact of these specific issues in a proposed license renewal policy