The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget provides enough funding for staff to review two applications to build facilities for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, commission members assured a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) raised the question during the panel’s oversight hearing on the NRC, which featured testimony from all three sitting commissioners.
On Feb. 28, the NRC docketed a full technical review of a license application from Holtec International to build and operate a facility in southeastern New Mexico with a potential maximum capacity for up to 120,000 metric tons of spent fuel. Meanwhile, Waste Control Specialists and Orano have said they intend by the second quarter of this year to revive WCS’ suspended license application for a 40,000-metric-ton-capacity facility in West Texas.
NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki told the committee the agency’s nearly $971 million planned budget for fiscal 2019 can handle work on both reviews, which each would be expected to take roughly two years. She did not cite specific funding levels.
The agency’s spent fuel storage and transportation line item for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 would receive $24. 8 million and 100 full-time equivalent personnel.
Prior to asking the NRC to suspend the licensing proceeding last April, Waste Control Specialists had said the review would cost about $7.5 million. Both companies would ultimately be billed for the agency’s work.
Wednesday’s hearing covered many of the same topics as a hearing Tuesday in which the commissioners testified about the budget proposal before two subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Both panels voiced concern about the NRC’s staff dropping by 149 full-time equivalents, from 3,396 in 2017 to a proposed 3,247 in 2019. “We cannot cut for the sake of cutting,” Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) said at the Wednesday hearing.
Commissioner Jeff Baran said the NRC expects to be at its optimal staff level in 2019, one year ahead of schedule. Svinicki added: “The funding we’re requesting, we believe is significant.”
