The trade organization for the U.S. nuclear industry has expressed deep reservations about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s fee collection plan for the current federal budget year.
The NRC said in February it anticipated collecting $781.9 million in service and annual fees from licensees in fiscal 2019, the large majority of its $911 million budget through Sept. 30. Overall spending would drop by $11 million from the prior budget year, with the fee take down by $7.4 million.
“The lack of transparency provided on the basis for the budget is problematic,” Doug True, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, wrote in a Feb. 27 letter to Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the commission. “As the industry addresses significant financial pressures, it is untenable for the agency to fail to provide a strong supportable basis for all aspects of the NRC budget, especially in areas where increases in fees are proposed.”
True said NRC budget documentation did not provide clarity on why the agency’s budget dropped by just 1.2 percent from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2019 even as the number of operating power plants continues to fall and industry budgets tighten.
He noted that the regulator’s budget for oversight of operating reactors remained steady at $670 million annually from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2019. With fees for specific services at operating reactors falling 26 percent over the three years, the annual fees would rise by 7.3 percent in fiscal 2019. That trend bodes poorly for the continuingly reduced number of working power plants, according to True, who cited 12 sites due to be retired through 2025.
“The loss of these licensees and the expected continued decrease in Part 170 service fees require NRC to take action to reduce the operating plant budget and stop the trend of increasing annual fees for the remaining operating plants,” True wrote.
The comment period on the NRC’s proposed fee plan ends today.
