(Sec. 3) Increases the maximum amount of standard deferred premium that may be assessed a licensee following a nuclear incident.
(Sec. 4) Specifies $10 billion as the aggregate amount by which the Secretary must indemnify DOE contractors above the amount of the financial protection required for each nuclear incident.
(Sec. 5) Increases from $100 million to $500 million the indemnification limits for incidents outside the United States.
(Sec. 6) Sets a deadline for status reports to Congress regarding contractor indemnification and limitation of liability.
(Sec. 7) Requires an inflation adjustment to the indemnification limits at least once every five years.
(Sec. 8) Instructs the NRC to consider a combination of modular reactors at a single site, each of which has between 100,000 and 300,000 electrical kilowatts (but a combined rated capacity of no more than 1.3 million kilowatts), as a single facility having a rated capacity of 100,000 electrical kilowatts or more.
(Sec. 10) Prohibits any Federal contract or other arrangement which would impose liability on the U.S. Government for nuclear accidents occurring in connection with the design, construction, or operation of a production facility or utilization facility in any foreign country whose government has been identified as engaged in State sponsorship of terrorist activities (including certain governments identified by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism).
(Sec.11) Instructs the NRC to establish a system to ensure: (1) that specified nuclear materials transferred or received from certain licensees and facilities be accompanied by a manifest describing the type and amount of such materials; (2) each individual transferring or accompanying the transfer of such materials has been subject to a security background check by Federal entities; and (3) such materials are not transferred to or received at a destination other than specified licensed facilities.
(Sec. 12) Instructs the President to study and report to Congress on threats to NRC-licensed facilities and Federal actions taken to address them.
Instructs the NRC to establish an operational safeguards response evaluation program that ensures that the physical protection capability and operational safeguards response for sensitive nuclear facilities shall be tested periodically through NRC approved or designed, observed, and evaluated force-on-force exercises to determine whether the ability to defeat the design basis threat is being maintained.
(Sec. 13) Mandates that the Secretary issue industrial health and safety regulations applicable to contractors and subcontractors at DOE nuclear facilities that: (1) provide worker health and safety protection substantially equivalent to or identical to certain industrial and construction safety regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; and (2) establish civil penalties substantially equivalent to or identical to those applicable to violations of the industrial and construction safety regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
(Sec. 14) Requires the NRC, before entering into an indemnification agreement with respect to a utilization facility, to consult with the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security regarding whether the facility location and design ensure that it provides adequate public health and safety protection if subjected to a terrorist attack.
(Sec. 15) Authorizes the Attorney General to bring a Federal action to recover amounts paid by the Federal Government under an indemnification agreement for public liability resulting from intentional misconduct of any corporate officer, manager, or superintendent of a DOE contractor (or subcontractor or supplier).
(Sec. 16) Repeals the requirement that the Secretary determine by rule whether nonprofit educational institutions should receive automatic remissions of civil monetary penalties for violations of DOE regulations.
Repeals the blanket liability exemption from civil money penalties for violations of DOE safety regulations granted to: (1) the University of Chicago for activities associated with Argonne National Laboratory; (2) The University of California for activities associated with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; (3) American Telephone and Telegraph Company for activities associated with Sandia National Laboratories; (4) Universities Research Association, Inc. for activities associated with FERMI National Laboratory; (5) Princeton University for activities associated with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; (6) the Associated Universities, Inc. for activities associated with the Brookhaven National Laboratory; and (7) Battelle Memorial Institute for activities associated with Pacific Northwest Laboratory.
Subjects certain tax-exempt contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers to such civil penalties, but limited to the amount of any discretionary fee paid to them.