Surety requirements.

(1)(a) In addition to the fee provided in s. 404.131(2), the department may require a person possessing a specific license to post a bond. The department shall establish, by rule, bonding criteria. In establishing such bonding criteria, the department shall consider:

1. The chemical and physical form of the licensed radioactive material.

2. The quantity of radioactive material authorized.

3. The particular radioisotopes authorized and their subsequent radiotoxicity.

4. The method in which the radioactive material is possessed, used, stored, processed, transferred, or disposed of.

5. The potential cost of decontamination, treatment, or disposal of a licensee’s equipment and facilities.

(b) A person who possesses a specific license to commercially treat, store, or dispose of low-level radioactive waste shall be required to post a bond.

(c) A bond deemed acceptable in this state shall be a bond issued by a fidelity or surety company authorized to do business in this state or a cash bond.

(d) The department is authorized to exempt, by rule, any category of licensees from the requirement of paragraph (a) when a determination is made that such exemption will not result in a significant risk to the public health and safety or the environment and will not pose a financial risk to the state.

(e) All state and local government agencies are exempt from this subsection.

(2) In lieu of posting a bond as required under subsection (1), a licensee may:

(a) Deposit with the Chief Financial Officer securities of the type eligible for deposit by insurers under s. 625.52, which securities must have at all times a market value of not less than the amount of the bond required under subsection (1).

(b) Whenever the market value of the securities deposited with the Chief Financial Officer is less than 95 percent of the amount required by the department, the licensee shall deposit additional securities or otherwise increase the deposit to the amount required.

(c) The state is responsible for the safekeeping of all securities deposited with the Chief Financial Officer under this section. Such securities are not, on account of being in this state, subject to taxation but shall be held exclusively and solely to guarantee the faithful performance by the licensee of its obligations.

(d) The depositing licensee shall have the right to exchange or substitute other securities of like quality and value for securities so on deposit, to receive the interest and other income accruing to such securities, and to inspect the deposit at all reasonable times.

(e) Such deposit shall be maintained unimpaired so long as the licensee continues in business in this state. Whenever the licensee ceases to do business in this state and furnishes the department satisfactory proof that it has discharged or otherwise adequately provided for all its obligations in this state, the Chief Financial Officer shall release the deposit securities to the parties entitled thereto, on the receipt of authorization from the department.

(3) A specific licensee who has posted a bond or deposited securities with the department, and has forfeited the same due to abandonment, default, insolvency, or other liability of the licensee to meet the requirements of the department or applicable state statutes or rules, shall have such bonds or securities deposited in the Radiation Protection Trust Fund.

(4) Nothing in this section or s. 404.122 may be deemed to relieve any licensee of any civil or criminal liability incurred; nor may anything contained in this section or s. 404.122 be construed to relieve the licensee from his or her obligation to pay to prevent or mitigate the consequences of abandonment of radioactive materials, default on lawful obligations, insolvency, or other inability to meet the requirements of the department.