The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday issued its final figures for fee collections that will provide the bulk of its funding for the current 2018 federal budget year.
The nuclear industry regulator is budgeted at $922 million for the fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30, up by $4.9 million from the prior fiscal 2017, according to a Federal Register notice.
Federal law requires the agency to secure 90 percent of its funding through fees, with exceptions made for a handful of programs such as international operations. For fiscal 2018 that means billing licensees and license applicants $789.3 million. That will be further broken down to: $280.8 million in user fees for inspections, special projects, and other specific operations; and $508.5 million in annual fees.
The professional hourly rate for specific services will increase from $263 to $275, due largely to a 7.3 percent drop in the number of “mission-direct” full-time equivalent positions from fiscal 2017, according to the Federal Register notice. That was counterbalanced by a 2.4 percent fall in budgeted resources and a minimal rise in productive hours, the NRC said.
“Fee relief activities” – those operations funded through congressional appropriations rather than fees – are not expected to reach the 10-percent budget level this year. That gives the NRC $3.9 million in fee-relief credit, $3.4 million of which will be directed toward operating-power reactor licensees. The remainder will be spread among licensees for spent fuel storage and reactor decommissioning, fuel facilities, materials users, and uranium recovery.
For fiscal 2018 spent fuel storage and reactor decommissioning operations, the NRC will take in $24.2 million in fees, up from $23 million in the prior year. The full budget for this work will rise from $29.5 million to $33.8 million on a year-over-year basis. That is partly due to the license application reviews for planned consolidated spent fuel storage facilities in New Mexico and Texas.
A longtime staffer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will take over next week as executive director for operations, the agency’s top career position.
Current NRC General Counsel Margaret Doane will replace Victor McCree, who formally retires on Saturday. Doane will be the first woman to hold the position.
Doane began working at the agency in 1991 as special assistant (legal) in the Office of the Secretary. She quickly transitioned to working as an attorney in the NRC Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication, where she stayed until 1998. For the next six years, Doane worked directly for Commissioner Jeff Merrifield as legal counsel, deputy chief of staff, and chief of staff. She subsequently served eight years as deputy director and then director of the Office of International Programs before becoming NRC general counsel in 2012.
In her new position, Doane is effectively the chief operating officer for the nuclear industry regulator. She will manage the daily operation of an organization with more than 3,000 full-time employees and an annual budget exceeding $900 million, including oversight of commercial nuclear power and waste operations. That encompasses management and coordination of policy development, operations, and carrying out directions from the five-person commission itself.
McCree has been on the job since September 2015, in an NRC career that began in 1988. His other roles have included program engineer, senior regional coordinator, deputy regional administrator, and regional administrator, among others. Before joining the NRC, McCree served in the U.S. Navy, retiring with the rank of commander.
The state of Missouri on June 22 formally established a fund for investigation of potential radioactive waste contamination in any jurisdiction.
The fund, which would receive no more than $150,000 in any fiscal year, was included in broader legislation addressing various operations of the state Department of Natural Resources. Gov. Michael Parson (R) signed the bill on June 22.
“Upon written request by a local governing body expressing concerns of radioactive waste contamination in a specified area within its jurisdiction, the department of natural resources shall use moneys in the radioactive waste investigation fund to develop and conduct an investigation, using sound scientific methods, for the specified area of concern,” according to the bill.
The St. Louis area is home to the West Lake Landfill, where nearly 9,000 tons of leached barium sulfate from the Manhattan Projected was deposited in the 1970s in a mixture with 38,000 tons of soil to cover trash. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in February selected partial excavation of the waste as its preferred means for cleaning up the contamination at the landfill, part of a larger EPA Superfund site. And on June 9 the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said there could be increased danger for cancer to people who lived near a St. Louis County creek contaminated by radioactive waste from Manhattan Project uranium extraction operations in the area.
In filing an investigation request with the state, according to the bill, the local jurisdiction would be required to cite a particular area of concern and provide records on that concern. Requests would be addressed on a first-come, first-served basis, through priority could go to areas near federally designated sites known or believed to contain certain contaminants.
The probe would be conducted by state or federal entities, or by a “qualified contractor” selected by the Department of Natural Resources. It would involve collection and analysis of samples to check for contaminants that would require remediation under federal guidelines.
The Department of Natural Resources is required to submit the results to the local jurisdiction, along with the state attorney general, no more than 45 days after the analysis concludes. The findings would also be posted on the state agency website.
French waste management provider Veolia will provide expertise in nuclear decommissioning and waste processing technologies to national utility EDF under a partnership formally sealed Tuesday.
Both parts of the 18-month agreement involve capabilities Veolia acquired in its 2016 purchase of California-based nuclear cleanup technologies specialist Kurion. It follows collaborative research on these matters dating to 2017, a Veolia spokesman said Thursday.
“The collaboration framework includes a number of complementary studies as well as pilot qualification and demonstration trials,” the spokesman said by email. “It is a partnership in which everyone brings their expertise and experience. In concrete terms, the aim is to implement specific work programs that can lead to the commercialization of vitrification and robotics solutions, notably for the graphite reactors.”
EDF is decommissioning six gas-cooled nuclear reactors at Bugey, Chinon, and Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux. Veolia will use its experience in development of remote-controlled robot systems to provide “innovative solutions” for dismantlement and removal of parts from the reactor cores, according to a joint press release from the two companies. Those solutions are intended to cut the cost and schedule for the work without sacrificing safety or security, the spokesman said.
Veolia’s GeoMelt system, which converts radioactive waste into a glass form for disposal, will also be applied to low- and intermediate-level waste under the agreement. That will start with the EDF reactors, but would be expanded to other customers.
“We are certainly hoping for a long and fruitful partnership between EDF and Veolia,” according to the spokesman. “The discussions started more than a year ago, and allow us to be very confident about the success of this partnership, which ultimately aims at the industrial implementation and commercial exploitation of these technologies.”
From The Wires
From New Civil Engineer: British government official cites global nuclear decommissioning market value at £250 billion by 2030.
From St. Louis Public Radio: Locals not satisfied by federal report on potential cancer threat from creek in St. Louis County, Mo., that was contaminated by radioactive waste.
From the Port Clinton, Ohio, News Herald: Ohio state Rep. Steve Arndt plans new legislation to save the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, one of three FirstEnergy Solutions plans to close by 2021.
From Courthouse News: San Francisco proceeds with residential development of former naval shipyard used for nuclear testing and decontamination of vessels used for hydrogen bomb tests.
From Law 360: Federal court rejects NextEra Energy lawsuit seeking $90 million in tax refunds from the U.S. government over nuclear decommissioning expenses.
