Maximum annual assessment payment mandated by Price-Anderson Act for a nuclear incident

[Table of Contents](#i0fa971ac9e834218957059819155291f_10)Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements(Dollars in millions, except per share data unless otherwise noted)  
Note 19 — Commitments and ContingenciesNuclear Insurance (Exelon)Generation is subject to liability, property damage, and other risks associated with major incidents at any of its nuclear stations. Generation has mitigated its financial exposure to these risks through insurance and other industry risk-sharing provisions.The Price-Anderson Act was enacted to ensure the availability of funds for public liability claims arising from an incident at any of the U.S. licensed nuclear facilities and to limit the liability of nuclear reactor owners for such claims from any single incident. As of December 31, 2021, the current liability limit per incident is $13.5 billion and is subject to change to account for the effects of inflation and changes in the number of licensed reactors at least once every five years with the last adjustment effective November 1, 2018. In accordance with the Price-Anderson Act, Generation maintains financial protection at levels equal to the amount of liability insurance available from private sources through the purchase of private nuclear energy liability insurance for public liability claims that could arise in the event of an incident. Effective January 1, 2017, the required amount of nuclear energy liability insurance purchased is $450 million for each operating site. Claims exceeding that amount are covered through mandatory participation in a financial protection pool, as required by the Price Anderson-Act, which provides the additional $13.1 billion per incident in funds available for public liability claims. Participation in this secondary financial protection pool requires the operator of each reactor to fund its proportionate share of costs for any single incident that exceeds the primary layer of financial protection. Generation’s share of this secondary layer would be approximately $2.8 billion, however any amounts payable under this secondary layer would be capped at $413 million per year.In addition, the U.S. Congress could impose revenue-raising measures on the nuclear industry to pay public liability claims exceeding the $13.5 billion limit for a single incident.Generation is required each year to report to the NRC the current levels and sources of property insurance that demonstrates Generation possesses sufficient financial resources to stabilize and decontaminate a reactor and reactor station site in the event of an accident. The property insurance maintained for each facility is currently provided through insurance policies purchased from NEIL, an industry mutual insurance company of which Generation is a member.NEIL may declare distributions to its members as a result of favorable operating experience. In recent years, NEIL has made distributions to its members. Generation's portion of the annual distribution declared by NEIL is estimated to be $113 million for 2021, and was $75 million and $136 million for 2020 and 2019, respectively. The distributions were recorded as a reduction to Operating and maintenance expense within Exelon’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.Spent Nuclear Fuel Obligation (Exelon)Under the NWPA, the DOE is responsible for the development of a geologic repository for and the disposal of SNF and high-level radioactive waste. As required by the NWPA, Generation is a party to contracts with the DOE (Standard Contracts) to provide for disposal of SNF from Generation’s nuclear generating stations. In accordance with the NWPA and the Standard Contracts, Generation historically had paid the DOE one mill ($0.001) per kWh of net nuclear generation for the cost of SNF disposal. Due to the lack of a viable disposal program, the DOE reduced the SNF disposal fee to zero in May 2014. Until a new fee structure is in effect, Exelon and Generation will not accrue any further costs related to SNF disposal fees. This fee may be adjusted prospectively to ensure full cost recovery.Generation currently assumes the DOE will begin accepting SNF in 2035 and uses that date for purposes of estimating the nuclear decommissioning asset retirement obligations. The SNF acceptance date assumption is based on management’s estimates of the amount of time required for DOE to select a site location and develop the necessary infrastructure for long-term SNF storage.The NWPA and the Standard Contracts required the DOE to begin taking possession of SNF generated by nuclear generating units by no later than January 31, 1998. The DOE, however, failed to meet that deadline and its performance is expected to be delayed significantly. In August 2004, Generation and the DOJ, in close consultation with the DOE, reached a settlement under which the government agreed to reimburse Generation, subject to certain damage limitations based on the extent of the government’s breach, for costs associated with storage of SNF at Generation’s nuclear stations pending the DOE’s fulfillment of its obligations. Calvert Cliffs, Ginna, and Nine Mile Point each have separate settlement agreements in place with the DOE which were 307  
  
  

