Mission

The mission of the Nuclear Decommissioning Trust ("NDT") Fund Conference is to provide continuing education for NDT fund sponsors as well as current and prospective service providers to the funds, and to provide a venue for formal presentations and informal discussion between fund sponsor representatives and service providers.

The Conference

The conference has been held every year since 1989. It is dedicated to administrative, regulatory and investment issues associated with nuclear decommissioning trusts and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas on these issues through topical presentations and "off-line" discussions by representatives of both the NDT fund sponsors and NDT service providers.

The Sponsors

Conference hosts are the owner/operators of nuclear power generation facilities. Each owner/operator is mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to establish a trust for each nuclear facility and to fund the trust with sufficient assets to decommission and dismantle the unit at the end of its operating life. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, there are 103 commercial reactors in the United States, 32 companies are currently licenced to operate nuclear power generation facilities, and the average expected cost of decommissioning a nuclear generation site is approximately $370 million in 1997 dollars. According to Duff & Phelps, as of the end of 2005 the aggregate balance of funds in NDTs was approximately $37 billion with contributions running around $800 million annually.

Typically about 30 representatives of NDT fund sponsors attend the conference. Most of them also have responsibilities relating to their firms' other dedicated funds, such as pension funds and 401(k) plans.