Introduction
The Nuclear Emergency Fee program is designed to collect yearly fees from the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Station and Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska for emergency preparedness. The program administrator is L'Tanya Christenberry.
There are six participating agencies in the nuclear fees program; The Adjutant General Department - Division of Emergency Management and The Kansas National Guard, The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Wildlife and Parks, and The Kansas Department of Transportation.
Program Explanation
In its spring, 1993 session, the Kansas legislature passed House Bill 2429, the Kansas nuclear safety emergency preparedness Act. The Act gave the Adjutant General the responsibility for managing the nuclear safety emergency preparedness fee fund to disburse funds to state agencies and local governments for financing the development, maintenance, and implementation of the plans and programs necessary for management of an incident at a nuclear facility.
In its spring, 1994 session, the Kansas State legislature passed House Bill 3055, which renames the Division of Emergency Preparedness and its programs. The nuclear safety emergency preparedness program was renamed the nuclear safety emergency management program, and the fee fund was renamed the nuclear safety emergency management fee fund.
The Adjutant General, through this program, is responsible for collecting fee payments from the nuclear facilities for whom State and local emergency management is maintained.
The goal of the fee program is to provide funding for the various State agencies involved in nuclear emergency management. The funds finance the development, maintenance and application of the plans and programs necessary for preparedness for a nuclear facility incident. The program provides government agencies with revenues to support emergency management for nuclear incidents at Wolf Creek Generating Station in Kansas and Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska in the areas of pager standby in case of an emergency, public notification during and emergency, emergency response activities that include evacuation of the public from potential radiological plume, testing the environment for radiation levels and contamination, assisting the nuclear power plant to resume normal operations, monitoring the nuclear power plants status weekly, and monitoring the Wolf Creek Generating Station’s two-way radio on a daily basis.
