RW Monitor
5/22/2015
IN CONGRESS
The Senate’s Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at $990 million, a decrease of $42 million from the NRC’s request amount. Because the NRC charges license fees, most of the money will be made back, resulting in net appropriation request of approximately $117 million. The budget includes $771 million for nuclear reactor safety, $219 million for nuclear materials and waste, and approximately $44 million for decommissioning and low-level waste. Within the nuclear materials and waste section, the Committee said, “The Committee notes that section 3 title III includes a general provision for a pilot program for the consolidated storage of used nuclear fuel. The Committee urges the Commission to be prepared to act promptly if this provision is enacted into law.”
The Senate’s Energy and Water Appropriations bill would decrease the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program allocation by $2.5 million from the requested amount to $101.5 million. That level of funding would equal the FY2015 level of funding for the program. The House bill matched the FUSRAP request of $104 million, and it included a clause that would prioritize the cleanup of sites nearing completion and the finalization of studies necessary to begin the Sylvania nuclear fuel site cleanup in Hicksville, N.Y.
