The White House’s independent nuclear safety and radioactive waste technology organizations would get every dime of the funding they asked for if the House’s version of the 2023 budget became law, according to a report published this week by House appropriators.
In its 2023 budget report published Monday, the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee recommended the Nuclear Regulatory Commission get the roughly $911 million the agency requested in March for the upcoming fiscal year. That figure represents a roughly 4.5% increase from NRC’s 2022 budget of about $877.7 million.
Within that spending, House appropriators proposed around $23.8 million in funding for the commission’s decommissioning and low-level waste management subprogram, an increase of around $1 million year-over-year from $22.8 million. Spending for NRC’s nuclear materials and waste safety program was also up to around $111.5 million from the $107 million or so it received in 2022, according to the report.
NRC usually recuperates the lion’s share of its budget from licensing fees. The agency said in budget justification documents published in March that it expects to receive around $792 million from licensees in 2023, leaving its net appropriations request for the upcoming fiscal year at just around $137 million.
Meanwhile, the House proposed Monday appropriating the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) roughly $3.9 million in fiscal 2023. That’s about 2.6% higher than the $3.8 million or so the country’s independent nuclear waste auditor got in 2022, but it’s consistent with the Joe Biden administration’s March funding request.
Founded in 1987, NWTRB is responsible for providing technical oversight of the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste disposal programs.
