ML24088A127
| ML24088A127 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 04/03/2024 |
| From: | Rossi A NRC/OCFO |
| To: | Neville M NRC/OCFO |
| Shared Package | |
| ML24088A120 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML24088A127 (1) | |
Text
April 3, 2024 MEMORANDUM TO:
Marcellino Neville, Director Division of Budget Office of the Chief Financial Officer FROM:
Anthony Rossi, Team Lead License Fee Policy Team Division of Budget Office of the Chief Financial Officer
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF THE MARCH 7, 2024, PUBLIC MEETING ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2024 PROPOSED FEE RULE On March 7, 2024, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held an information meeting with a question and answer session. The purpose of the public meeting was for the NRC staff to discuss the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Proposed Fee Rule, which was published in the Federal Register on February 20, 2024, for a 30-day comment period ending on March 21, 2024. The following link contains the meeting agenda and presentation slides. Enclosure 1 lists the public meeting attendees, and Enclosure 2 provides the official transcript at the meeting.
The meeting began with a review of the ground rules and an introduction of the NRC staff from the Office of Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR),
and the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) who were on the panel. The meeting included a dedicated time to answer questions from members of the public. During the meeting, NRC staff presented key features of the FY 2024 Proposed Fee Rule with a discussion about how fees were related to the budget. NRC staff in NRR discussed the Operating and New Reactors Business Lines, and NRC staff in NMSS discussed the Fuel Facilities and Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste business lines. The presentations by NRR and NMSS staff specifically provided an overview of the major activities that are performed, the assumptions used in the development of the budget (e.g., workload forecasting, estimated level of effort, type of work, and historical resource utilization), and the changing workload drivers that impacted the FY 2024 budget. Additionally, NRC staff provided an overview of the one proposed administrative change that was included in the FY 2024 Proposed Fee Rule. This summary includes responses to follow-up questions that were asked during the public meeting and a clarification to a response.
CONTACT: Jo Jacobs, OCFO/DOB 301-415-8388
During the designated question and answer portion of the meeting, the questions primarily were focused on the following areas:
Fuel Facilities Fee Class: NEI commented on the proposed 22 percent increase in annual fees following the 19 percent increase in annual fees in FY2023, the difficulty licensees would have in absorbing these increases, and the potential impact on their ability to increase domestic capacity while supporting advanced reactors. The NRC staff explained that increases were primarily due to budget increases and lower than anticipated 10 CFR Part 170 billings because of delays in the submittals of the Niowave license application and Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas amendment supporting Natrium fuel fabrication. NEI expressed concern that these efforts were not reflected in the FY 2024 Proposed Fee Rule. The NRC staff identified that, during the budget formulation and execution process, it can account for fact of life changes and implemented changes, where possible, in FY2024 and FY2025. These changes are reflected in the FY2025 CBJ.
Budget Formulation and Execution: Questions on budget formulation and execution included the proposed use of carryover funding to reduce the Nuclear Reactor Safety Budget, and why carryover was not proposed to reduce the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program budget, the subsidy for Three White Flint North, and information technology resources.
Non-Power Production or Utilization Facilities Fee Class: NRC staff received a question about considerations of a reduction in future proposed annual fees, budgets, or creating other mitigative solutions due to the declining number of annual fee-paying NPUFs. NRC staff is aware of the decrease from three to two NPUF annual fee-paying licensees. If the NRC does not recover all NPUF fee class budgeted resources in 10 CFR Part 170 service fees, including fees for large licensing projects, these resources must be recovered in 10 CFR Part 171 annual fees. The NRC staff is actively working on mitigating solutions, including engagement with the Commission, to resolve this issue. The NRC staff is actively exploring options to address the NPUF fee class due to the decline in number of operating NPUFs and will engage with the Commission as appropriate.
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning Fee Class: Stakeholders commented on the proposed annual fee for this fee class, which had a 26 percent increase. The primary increase for the proposed annual fee was due to the increase in the budget to support the reactor decommissioning program.
Finally, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 was recently enacted on March 9, 2024, and the FY 2024 final Fee Rule will reflect the FY 2024 enacted budget. The FY 2024 final Fee Rule will be published in the Federal Register by June 30, 2024, and effective 60-days after publication.
Responses to Follow-up Questions:
Question 1:
How much in the 2024 budget is being used to subsidize the rent for Three White Flint North?
When will the subsidy end?
Response 1:
There is approximately $5.7M in the FY 2024 Budget Request to subsidize the rent in Three White Flint North, which will end in 2027.
Question 2:
In last year's budget and, to a great degree, this year's budget, there's a lot of funding for information technology (IT) (i.e., IT infrastructure). For example, in some business lines, there was a significant decrease in IT from 2023 to 2024, and, at the same time, there was a large increase in IT from 2023 to 2024 for other business lines. Can the NRC say whether this is something that we can see go away in general in future years, or is this going to be kind of a continuing portion of the budget? Once completed in a particular business line or area, will IT costs go down?
Response 2:
Information Technology (IT) and Information Management (IM) is an ever-changing environment. The NRC strives to remain flexible and agile with the rapid development of new technologies throughout the Federal Government and the changes in the nuclear industry.
Overall, the agencywide IT budget increased less than four percent from FY 2023 to FY 2024, which was due to IT operations and maintenance costs; development, modernization, and enhancement investments for critical activities; and federal mandates including cybersecurity.
The NRC makes every effort to formulate its IT/IM budget accurately, but will continue to respond to emergent activities, including Executive Orders and other governmentwide requirements, which may result in fluctuations from year to year within specific business lines.
Clarification Response:
One stakeholder asked a question on the rulemakings that are budgeted under the fuel facilities business line. During the meeting the NRC staff stated that the two rules that are budgeted under the fuel facilities business line are the Enhanced Weapons and Cyber Security at Fuel Facilities rulemakings. The staff is clarifying that the two budgeted rulemakings under the Fuel Facilities business line are the Cyber Security and the Enhanced Security for Special Nuclear Material rulemakings.
Enclosures:
- 1. List of Attendees
- 2. Official Transcript
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF THE MARCH 7, 2024, PUBLIC MEETING ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2024 PROPOSED FEE RULE, DATED: April XX, 2024 DISTRIBUTION:
PUBLIC OCFO/DOB Resource ADAMS Accession Number: Package ML24088A120; ML24088A127 Memo OFFICE:
OCFO/DOB OCFO/DOB OCFO/DOB OCFO/DOB NAME:
JJacobs WBlaney CGalster ARossi DATE:
03/28/2024 03/28/2024 03/28/2024 04/03/2024 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY