By John Stang
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested a $970.7 million budget for fiscal 2019, a nearly $60 million spike from the current level largely on the back of proposed funding for licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
If approved by Congress, the nuclear industry regulator’s budget would grow from $910.9 million in the enacted budget for fiscal 2017. The agency’s funding has been frozen at that level in the current 2018 fiscal year by a series of short-term budgets that have kept the government open since October.
The biggest chunk of the requested funding hike is $47.7 million for Yucca Mountain licensing activities. The current budget provides exactly nothing for this work, and it remains to be seen whether a skeptical Senate will hand over the money.
Another $10.3 million would be added to enable the agency to establish a regulatory infrastructure for advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
Overall, NRC staffing would drop by 149 full-time equivalents, from 3,396 to 3,247. That is partly due to a reduced need for reactor safety personnel after cancellation last year of two new power reactors in South Carolina, NRC spokesman David McIntyre said.
“We expect that any decreases this year will be managed through attrition (about 3-5% annually) and hiring controls,” McIntyre said by email.
The NRC has cut more than 500 full-time equivalent positions since 2014, largely through a right-sizing program established after an anticipated increase in nuclear power plants requiring regulation failed to materialize.
Victor McCree, the NRC’s executive director for operations, and Maureen Wylie, the agency’s chief financial officer, said it is unknown whether the downward trend will continue in future years. Speaking to reporters during a telephone briefing Monday, they said the NRC will keep tweaking its personnel numbers to find the best combinations.
“Our focus is to become more efficient, more effective and more agile,” McCree said.
Fiscal 2019 begins on Oct. 1.
With congressional approval, the NRC’s Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program’s proposed $183.7 million budget would grow by $42.4 million from the enacted 2017 budget of $141.3 million and by $46.8 million from the annualized $136.9 million in the continuing resolutions of the current budget year. That would cover 650 full-time equivalent positions.
Within the materials and waste safety program, the fuel facilities business line would get $25.2 million and 107 FTEs; nuclear materials users $60.6 million and 215 FTEs; spent fuel storage and transportation $24.8 million and 100 FTEs; decommissioning and low-level waste $25.4 million and 104 FTEs; and high-level waste (where the Yucca work lives) $47.7 million and 124 FTEs.
Corporate support will grow slightly from $298 million to $299.6 million, while the FTEs will drop by 108 from 717 to 609.
The Office of the Inspector General budget will grow slightly from $12 million to $12.6 million, with its personnel staying steady at 63.
Roughly 90 percent of the NRC’s budget is funded by licensee fees. The agency expects to collect $815.4 million in fees for fiscal 2019, leaving a net appropriation request of $155.3 million. That would be $44.5 million higher than the annualized amount so far for fiscal 2018.
