Sec. C-2. PL 1997, c. 700, §10 is amended to read:

*Sec. 10. Payment by Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant. The Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant shall pay $25,000 by July 1st of each year to the Department of Environmental Protection to support legislative allocations to the department associated with the Advisory Commission on Radioactive Waste and Decommissioning. Payments required under this section cease on the date of the final operating license termination of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant that the former plant site, except for the spent fuel storage facility, is released from operating license requirements by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Any unobligated balance remaining must be returned to may be used by the department to pay costs incurred in overseeing and monitoring the site of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant until the balance is exhausted.

SUMMARY

The State's only nuclear generating unit, known as Maine Yankee, permanently ceased operations in 1997, began the process of dismantlement and decontamination in 1998 and has completed more than 95% of that physical decommissioning process. With the imminent completion of physical decommissioning of the nuclear generating unit, the State's monitoring and oversight activities will change significantly. This bill ensures that monitoring and oversight of the site and the interim spent fuel storage installation will continue as necessary and will continue to be funded by the nuclear generating facility. The bill reorganizes the State's oversight and monitoring functions and repeals or sets the schedule for repeal of statutory provisions to eliminate unnecessary regulatory oversight functions and related fees that are charged to electric ratepayers.

Certain state monitoring and oversight activities and costs related to an operating nuclear facility, such as emissions reporting and waste transport fees, are also repealed. This reorganization and establishment of a new assessment level on the licensee was part of a recent Federal Energy Regulatory