# Financial Assurance **Domain:** Regulation / Long-Term Finance / Continuity **Doc Type:** Canonical Precedent Node **Maturity:** Established Mechanism / Prospective Application ## Definition **Financial assurance is a mechanism requiring resources or guarantees to be available for a future duty before the responsible operator becomes unable or unwilling to perform it.** ## Existing Mechanisms U.S. nuclear regulation recognizes mechanisms including prepayment, surety or insurance, guarantees and external sinking funds. Relevant designs can place funds in accounts outside the licensee's administrative control, require acceptable trustees, demand replenishment and examine financial qualifications during license transfer. Perpetual-care statutes likewise use segregated trust principal whose income supports ongoing care. These regimes do not guarantee perfect performance, but they demonstrate that long-duration maintenance can be treated as a funded obligation rather than a future moral request. ## Continuity Application A continuity provider could be required to prefund preservation, migration, receivership and minimum-service costs; keep protected assets outside its ordinary estate; update cost estimates; and transfer assurance with the duty. The mechanism must cover technical knowledge and operational access as well as money. ## Boundary This is an existing regulatory mechanism applied here by analogy. **No current nuclear, cemetery or environmental assurance rule protects computational persons.** ## Sources / Provenance - [U.S. NRC: Financial Assurance for Decommissioning](https://www.nrc.gov/waste/decommissioning/finan-assur). - [10 CFR Part 70](https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part070/full-text). - [North Carolina General Statutes § 160A-347](https://library.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_160A/GS_160A-347.html). ## See Also [[wiki/Continuity Finance|Continuity Finance]], [[wiki/Intergenerational Fiduciary Duty|Intergenerational Fiduciary Duty]], [[wiki/Continuity Receivership|Continuity Receivership]]