SHUTDOWN COST NRC $10 MILLION

The government shutdown in October cost the Nuclear Regulatory Commission $10 million in lost productivity, said NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane in a speech earlier this week at the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations CEO Conference in Atlanta, Ga. “Our preliminary assessment indicates that the shutdown cost the agency over $10 million in productivity,” she said. “It also created a backlog of non-emergency licensing work and forced us to delay progress of a number of important projects, including our Waste Confidence work and post-Fukushima actions. For an agency that prides itself on careful, yet timely analysis and responsiveness to our licensees and members of the public, this was troubling,” she said. Last week, Macfarlane said she expects Waste Confidence to be completed in fall of 2014, a timeline that matches orginal estimates. 

 

Macfarlane also commented on the effects of sequestration on projects in the future, but she maintained that the NRC was still committed to its mission for safety. “But the combination of well-grounded immediate priorities and constrained and unpredictable annual budgeting means that important longer-term work simply isn’t going to get done,” she said. “In some cases, it could mean additional delays – in others, it means certain activities may be temporarily suspended.”