The department shall require a licensee or an applicant for a license pursuant to Section 115060 to receive, possess, or transfer radioactive materials, or devices or equipment utilizing radioactive materials, to provide a financial surety to ensure performance of its obligations under this chapter. The department shall establish, by regulation, the amount and type of financial surety that is required to be provided in order to provide for maximum protection of the public health and safety and the environment. The financial surety shall be in the form of surety bonds, deposits of government securities, escrow accounts, lines of credit, trust funds, credit insurance, or any other equivalent financial surety arrangement acceptable to the department. The department shall adopt the regulations in accordance with, but not limited to, the following criteria:

(a)  Consideration of the need for, and scope of, any decontamination, decommissioning, reclamation, or disposal activities required to protect the public health and safety and the environment.

(b)  Estimates of the costs of the required decontamination, decommissioning, reclamation, or disposal.

(c)  The costs of long-term maintenance and surveillance, if required.

(d)  Consideration of the appropriateness of specific requirements imposed in the financial assurance regulations adopted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including, but not limited to, the minimum levels of financial assurance required to be provided by different categories of facilities, and the categories of facilities which are exempted from the requirement to provide a financial surety.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1023, Sec. 337. Effective September 29, 1996.)