ML24088A129
| ML24088A129 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/07/2024 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML24088A120 | List: |
| References | |
| NRC-2717 | |
| Download: ML24088A129 (1) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
MEETING ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2024 PROPOSED FEE RULE
Docket Number: N/A
Location: Videoconference
Date: 03- 07-2024
Work Order No.: NRC-2717 Pages 1-70
NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433 1
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
3 + + + + +
4 MEETING ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2024 PROPOSED FEE RULE
5 + + + + +
6 THURSDAY,
7 MARCH 7, 2024
8 + + + + +
9 The meeting was convened via
10 Videoconference, at 10:00 a.m. EST, Sophie Holiday,
11 Facilitator, presiding.
12
13 PRESENT:
14 SOPHIE HOLIDAY, Facilitator
15 BILLY BLANEY, Budget Analyst, Office of the Chief
16 Financial Officer
17 MELISSA CHUI, Financial Management Specialist,
18 Labor Administration and Fee Billing Branch,
19 Division of the Comptroller, Office of the
20 Chief Financial Officer
21 CHRISTINE GALSTER, Senior Accountant, Office of the
22 Chief Financial Officer
23 JENNIFER GOLDER, Acting Chief Financial Officer
24 JO JACOBS, Senior Budget Analyst, Office of the
25 Chief Financial Officer NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 2
1 SAMANTHA LAV, Chief, Fuel Facility Licensing
2 Branch, Division of Fuel Management, Office
3 of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
4 MARC NEVILLE, Director, Division of Budget, Office
5 of the Chief Financial Officer
6 ANTHONY ROSSI, Team Lead, License Fee Policy Team,
7 Division of Budget, Office of the Chief
8 Financial Officer
9 BRIAN SMITH, Director, Division of New and Renewed
10 Licenses, Office of Nuclear Reactor
11 Regulation
12 JEN WHITMAN, Deputy Director, Division of Uranium
13 Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of
14 Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
15
16 ALSO PRESENT:
17 JOHN BUTLER, Nuclear Energy Institute
18 MIKE CALLAHAN, Decommissioning Plant Coalition
19 HILARY LANE, Nuclear Energy Institute
20 JANET SCHLUETER, Nuclear Energy Institute
21
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 3
1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 Page
3 Welcome and Logistics 4
4 Opening Remarks 10
5 FY 2024 Proposed Fee Rule Overview 12
6 Proposed Administrative Change 49
7 Questions and Answers 51
8 How to Submit Public Comments 71
9 Closing Remarks/Adjourn 73
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 4
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 10:02 a.m.
3 MS. HOLIDAY: Good morning, everyone,
4 and welcome to today's virtual public meeting to
5 discuss the NRC's fiscal year 2024 proposed fee
6 rule. My name is SophieHoliday, and I am a Senior
7 Emergency Response Coordinator here at the U.S.
8 Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC as you'll
9 hear it referred to during this meeting. It is my
10 pleasure to serve as your facilitator today.
11 Before I launch into my remarks, I would
12 like to highlight a few things. First, I'd like to
13 inform you that, for accessibility purposes, you
14 may turn on the closed captioning for this meeting
15 by selecting the three dots on the top of your
16 screen labeled more from the drop-down menu.
17 Depending on your version of Microsoft Teams, you
18 can select language and speech, turn on live
19 captions, or you can select settings,
20 accessibility, and toggle captions to always show
21 captions in my meetings.
22 Second, this is a virtual public meeting
23 with attendees that are joining us online via
24 Microsoft Teams. You may notice that the chat
25 feature has been disabled. If you encounter any NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 5
1 technical issues with Teams during this meeting,
2 please feel free to reach out to myself via Teams
3 or via email at Sophie, that's S-O-P-H-I-E, dot
4 Holiday, H-O-L-I-D-A-Y, at nrc.gov. You can also
5 join this meeting through the Teams audio-only
6 bridgeline by dialing 301-576-2978 with phone
7 conference ID number 902650260#. Again, that's
8 phone number 301-576-2978 with phone conference ID
9 number 902650260#.
10 We have three goals for today's meeting.
11 The first goal is to provide you with an overview
12 of the budgetary considerations associated with the
13 fiscal year 2024 proposed fee rule, which was
14 published in the Federal Registeron
15 February20,2024, citation 89 FR 12759. The
16 second goal is to answer any clarifying questions
17 that you may have, and the third goal is, of
18 course, to share the different methods by which you
19 may submit your comments on the proposed fee rule
20 by the deadline of March 21, 2024.
21 Now, a term that you're going to hear a
22 lot today is fees, which simply refers to the
23 amount of money that the NRC charges to applicants
24 and licensees for the services we provide. Under
25 the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 6
1 orIOAA, we are statutorily required to recover the
2 costs for NRC work that provides specific benefits
3 to identifiable recipients, such as licensing
4 activities, inspections, and special projects.
5 You will also hear the term NEIMA, which
6 stands for the Nuclear Energy Innovationand
7 Modernization Act. NEIMA requires that the NRC
8 recovers, to the maximum extent practicable,
9 approximately 100 percent of the Commission's
10 budget authority each fiscal year, less those
11 activities excluded from fee recovery. There will
12 be other terms or acronyms referenced on the
13 slides, which are defined in the glossary found at
14 the very last slide.
15 If you could go to the next slide,
16 please. Okay. As you can see on this slide, the
17 meeting will essentially have three parts. First,
18 we'll hear presentations from NRC staff to
19 highlight the fiscal year 2024 budget and proposed
20 fee rule, followed by a licensee fee policy
21 overview and presentations to cover the nuclear
22 reactor safety program, which includes the
23 operating new reactors business lines, the fuel
24 facilities business line, and the decommissioning
25 and low-level waste business line.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 7
1 The second part of the meeting will
2 include a presentation on the 11 proposed
3 administrative changes, which seeks to align the
4 U.S. Department --excuse me --which seeks to
5 align with the U.S. Department of Treasury's No-
6 Cash/No-Check policy by clarifying available
7 payment methods.
8 The last part, I will facilitate a
9 question-and-answer session, during which you can
10 interact with the staff to ask any clarifying
11 questions on the proposed rule.
12 Now let's cover a few ground rules. As
13 stated earlier, this is acompletely virtual public
14 meeting that's being held on Microsoft Teams. A
15 link to the presentation slides that you see before
16 you can be found on the NRC's public meeting
17 schedule website or in NRC's Agencywide Documents
18 Access andManagement System, commonly referred to
19 as ADAMS, at Accession Number ML24066A002.
20 Please keep in mind that we are
21 transcribing this meeting to make sure we fully
22 capture your questions and to assist in development
23 of a meeting summary. This summary will also be
24 placed into ADAMS as a publicly-available document
25 approximately 30 days after the conclusion of this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 8
1 meeting.
2 You can help us get a clean recording
3 and have a smooth meeting by muting your telephones
4 and/or microphones when you're not speaking.
5 Additionally, we ask that you minimize any
6 background noise if you choose to speak and that
7 you identify yourself and any group or
8 organizational affiliation, if applicable.
9 The NRC categorizes this meeting as an
10 information meeting with a question-and-answer
11 session, so attendees will have an opportunity to
12 ask questions of the NRC staff or make comments
13 about the topics discussed throughout the meeting.
14 However, the NRC is not accepting any comments made
15 at today's meeting as official comments on the
16 proposed rule. Rather, comments will have to be
17 submitted in writing to receive formal
18 consideration. We'll be going over the various
19 ways you can provide your formal comments later on
20 in the meeting.
21 Again, our chat feature is closed, and
22 that is primarily so that we do not inadvertently
23 miss any comments or questions that you may have so
24 that it can be captured by the court reporter in
25 the official meeting transcript. Again, if you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 9
1 encounter any technical difficulties, please feel
2 free to reach out to me.
3 Now I'd like to take a moment to
4 introduce the NRC staff panelists in attendance
5 today. We have Marc Neville, the budget director,
6 who will be discussing how our budget reflects our
7 activities and the relationship between budget and
8 fees.
9 Next, we'll have Tony Rossi, the team
10 lead for the Licensee Policy Team within the Office
11 of the Chief Financial Officer, who will provide a
12 license fee policy overview of the fiscal year 2024
13 proposed fee rule. Then we'll have Brian Smith,
14 the Division Director for the Division of New and
15 Renewed Licenses in the Office of Nuclear Reactor
16 Regulation, or NRR, who will discuss the reactor
17 safety program, which consists of the operating and
18 new reactors business line.
19 Next, we'll have a presentation from
20 Samantha Lav, Chief of the Fuel Facility Licensing
21 Branch within the Division of Fuel Management in
22 the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
23 Safeguards, or NMSS, who will provide an overview
24 of the fuel facilities business line. Next, we'll
25 have a presentation from Jen Whitman, Deputy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 10
1 Director for the Division of Decommissioning,
2 Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs in NMSS, who
3 will provide an overview of the decommissioning
4 low-level waste business line.
5 Then we'll have a presentation from
6 Melissa Chui, Financial Management Specialist in
7 the Labor Administration and Fee Billing Branch,
8 Division of the Comptroller, within OCFO. She'll
9 provide us with an overview of the proposed
10 administrative changes regarding electronic payment
11 methods.
12 And last but not least, I'd like to
13 introduce you to Jennifer Golder, the acting Chief
14 Financial Officer, who I will now turn the meeting
15 over for some opening remarks. Jennifer, please
16 take it away. Oh, I can't hear you, Jennifer. I'm
17 so sorry.
18 MS. GOLDER: Thank you, Sophie. Good
19 morning. I'm Jennifer Golder, the acting Chief
20 Financial Officer of the Nuclear Regulatory
21 Commission. I'm happy to be here today as we
22 engage with NRC stakeholders around the fiscal year
23 2024 proposed fee rule. I would like to share my
24 deep appreciation for my staff's work developing
25 this year's fee rule and acknowledge that their NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 11
1 success would not be possible without our various
2 partner offices across the NRC.
3 I also want to thank you for joining us
4 today in this public meeting. It is our view that
5 this virtual format enhances our dialogue with our
6 stakeholders, and we welcome your questions and
7 comments during the Q&A portion of the meeting.
8 Next slide, please. I want to briefly
9 emphasize the types of inquiries that would be
10 considered in-scope for this meeting on the
11 proposed fee rule. Today's panel is best prepared
12 to provide timely responses on topics that are
13 within scope. Some examples of in-scope comments
14 are the NRC's methodology for calculating fees,
15 changes to fee regulations or the fee schedules.
16 A few examples of what we consider to be
17 out-of-scope comments are general comments on
18 agency efficiencies, regulatory practices and
19 processes, technical guidance to licensees, or
20 public participation in the budget formulation
21 process. Even though this meeting on our fees is
22 not the proper venue for out-of-scope questions, we
23 do want to hear from you,and we encourage you to
24 use the appropriate venues so we can address any
25 comments or concerns directly.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 12
1 In closing, I want to emphasize that the
2 NRC is continuing evaluating our fee-setting
3 process to determine improvements to increase
4 transparency, equity, and timeliness. As always,
5 we welcome your questions and formal comments and
6 look forward to a continued dialogue with you, our
7 stakeholders.
8 Again, thank you for your participation.
9 And I will now turn the meeting over to our budget
10 director, Marc Neville, who will provide a budget
11 overview of the key considerations that relate to
12 the fiscal year 2024 proposed fee rule. Next
13 slide, please.
14 MR. NEVILLE: Good morning, everyone.
15 My name is Marc Neville. I've been assigned as the
16 budget director here for about a month, and I'm
17 going to go over the FY 2024 budget as it relates
18 to fee policy.
19 Next slide. In the FY 2024 budget
20 request column, theNRC's FY 2024 budget request
21 reflects resources necessary to accomplish mission-
22 critical activities related to safety and security
23 in the nuclear reactor safety program and the
24 nuclear material and waste safety program. In the
25 FY 2024 budget request, it is slightly over $1 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 13
1 billion, and it includes 2,948 FTE and proposes the
2 use of $27.1 million incarryover to offset nuclear
3 reactor safety budget.
4 The total budget authority used in the
5 FY 2024 proposed fee rule is $979.2 million. The
6 resources requestedfor FY 2024 increased by $63.2
7 million before applying carryover when compared to
8 the FY 2023 enacted budget. The resources
9 increased by $52.1 million, including an increase
10 of 89.3 FTE when compared to the FY 2023 enacted
11 budget after applying the proposed utilization of
12 carryover.
13 In the FY 2024 budget request, resources
14 for the nuclear reactor safety budget are $530.8
15 million, which includes 1,807 FTE. This is an
16 increase of $40.1 million and 53.5 FTE when
17 compared to the FY 2023 enacted budget.
18 The proposed use of $27.1 million in
19 carryover applied between operating and new reactor
20 business lines with a split of $26.6 million and
21 $0.6 million respectively, an increase in the
22 nuclear reactor safety programs primarily to
23 support salary and benefits in accordance with OMB
24 guidance. Resources also increased to support new
25 reactor licensing activities and the review of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 14
1 license renewal applications.
2 As mentioned in the beginning of the
3 meeting, Brian Smith will be providing a
4 presentation on nuclear reactor safety program,
5 including a discussion on workload, later during
6 this meeting.
7 In the FY 2024 budget request, resources
8 for material and waste safety program are $152.9
9 million, which includes 480.9 FTE. This is an
10 increase of $17.5 million and 16.7 FTE, primarily
11 due to increases in salariesand benefits and
12 support workload changes within the program.
13 Within the fuel facility business line,
14 FTE increases to support licenses actions, such as
15 those related to enrichment and manufacturing of
16 high-assay low-enrichmenturanium and accident
17 tolerant fuel, the review of applications related
18 to the review of one new fuel facility license
19 application and one new medical isotope production
20 facility, and programmatic oversight and inspection
21 in support of Category II fuel facilities and the
22 anticipated new medical isotope production
23 facility.
24 Within the decommissioning and low-level
25 waste business line, the FTE increased to support NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 15
1 licensing and oversight activities for the reactor
2 decommissioning program, which includes both power
3 and non-power reactors in various stages of
4 decommissioning.
5 Later, during the presentation, Samantha
6 Lav and Jen Whitman will also be providing
7 presentations on fuel facilities and
8 decommissioning and low-level waste business lines,
9 including the discussion of workload in their
10 respective business lines.
11 The resources for corporate support
12 business lines are $304 million, which include 588
13 FTE. This is an increase of $18.7 million and 9
14 FTE when compared to the FY 2023 enacted budget.
15 The corporate support business line constitutes
16 approximately 30 percent of the agency's total
17 budget authority and reflects the agency's effort
18 to meet the corporate support cap in Section
19 102(a)(3)(a) of the NEIMA, Nuclear Energy
20 Innovation and Modernization Act, to the maximum
21 extent practical. Increases can be primarily
22 attributed to the increases in salary and benefits
23 consistent with OMB guidance, IT security support
24 to comply with cyber executive order activities,
25 directives, and mandates, updates of legacy NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 16
1 components and escalations in information
2 technology costs, the number of planned paid
3 relocation moves for permanent change of station,
4 the Minority Serving Institutions grant program,
5 and maintenance of mandated acquisition systems.
6 Regarding carryover, each fiscal year,
7 the NRC follows the direction of Congress in the
8 explanatory statement that accompanies the annual
9 appropriations. In FY 2023, Congress directed the
10 NRC to use $16 million in authorized carryover to
11 fund the University Nuclear Leadership Program, or
12 UNLP. Carryover may be used to describe funds that
13 were appropriated but not obligated in the prior
14 fiscal year or funds that would be obligated
15 because the funds were no longer needed in
16 subsequent fiscal years.
17 While Congressional direction to use
18 carryover has been a trend either to offset our
19 budget or to fund UNLP, the agency has received
20 questions from stakeholders on the use of carryover
21 in previous fee rules. As I mentioned previously,
22 the FY 2024 budget request and the FY 2024 proposed
23 fee rule proposes the use of $27.1 million in
24 carryover to offset the nuclear reactor safety
25 budget. However, if the enacted budget authority NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 17
1 for FY 2024 does not include the utilization of
2 $27.1 million in carryover to offset the nuclear
3 reactor safety budget, it is likely that the annual
4 fee for operating power reactors feeclass could
5 increase.
6 The NRC will follow the direction of
7 Congress in the explanatory statement that will
8 accompany the appropriation for FY 2024. Any
9 changes will be reflected in NRC's FY 2024 final
10 fee rule. For this meeting, we will consider the
11 use of carryover in future budgets out of scope.
12 This meeting is focusing on discussing the FY 2024
13 proposed fee rule.
14 Next slide. The NRC must recover to the
15 maximum extent practical $823.2 million of its
16 FY2024 budget request from fees assessed to NRC
17 licensees and applicants. This results in a net
18 budget authority of $156 billion, an increase of
19 $19 million when compared to the FY 2023 enacted
20 budget. NEIMA requires the NRC to recover to the
21 maximum extent practical approximately 100 percent
22 of its annual budget, less certain amounts excluded
23 from this fee recovery requirement. Under NEIMA,
24 excluded activities include any fee-relief activity
25 as identified by the Commission, generic homeland NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 18
1 security activities, Waste Incidental to
2 Reprocessing activities, Nuclear Waste Fund
3 activities, advanced reactor regulatory
4 infrastructure activities, Inspector General
5 services for theDefense Nuclear Facilities Safety
6 Board, research and development at universities in
7 areas relevant to NRC's mission, and a nuclear
8 science and engineering grant program. In FY 2024,
9 in addition to fee-relief activities identified by
10 the Commission in prior fee rules, the resources
11 for the Minority Serving Institutions grant program
12 are also identified as a fee-relief activity to
13 exclude from the fee recovery requirement.
14 Some examples of fee-relief activities
15 include international activities, regulatory
16 support to Agreement States, fee exemptions for
17 nonprofit educational institutions, and Agreement
18 State oversight. After accounting for the
19 exclusion from the fee recovery requirement and any
20 net billing adjustments, the NRC estimates that it
21 must recover approximately $825.7 million in fees
22 in FY 2024, which Tony Rossi will go over in
23 further detail during his presentation.
24 And with that, I'll turn the
25 presentation over toTony Rossi who will be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 19
1 discussing our fee calculations.
2 MR. ROSSI: Thank you, Marc. Good
3 morning. My name is Tony Rossi. I'm the team lead
4 for the licensee fee policy team.
5 Next slide, please. On this slide I'll
6 review the primary statutes that direct NRC's fee
7 recovery. The Independent Offices Appropriation
8 Act, also known as IOAA, requires agencies to
9 collect fees for direct services rendered through
10 identifiable recipients. The NRC regulations
11 implementing the IOAA are established at
12 10CFRPart170.
13 The Nuclear Energy Innovation and
14 Modernization Act, referred to as NEIMA, repealed
15 the former fee statutory requirement under OBRA 90,
16 which was in effect from 1990 through 2020. NEIMA
17 directed several fee-related changes: to increase
18 the fee recovery requirement in effect under OBRA
19 90 from 90 percent of the appropriated budget less
20 excluded and fee-relief activities to recovery of
21 100 percent of the appropriated budget less
22 excluded and fee-relief activities; it placed the
23 cap on operating power reactorannual fees equal to
24 the fiscal year 2015 power reactor annual fee
25 adjusted annually for inflation; it included NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 20
1 certain activities from the recovery requirement,
2 including any additional activities identified by
3 the Commission for fee-relief.
4 The NRC regulations implementing the
5 NEIMA annual fee requirements are established at
6 10CFRPart171. Also, the annual appropriation
7 contains further instructions and/or limitations on
8 the use of funds, as well as authorizing the use of
9 carryover funds from the prior fiscal year.
10 Congress must authorize the use of carryover funds.
11 Next slide, please. This slide provides
12 an overview of how the fee recovery amounts are
13 initially determined. For fiscal year 2024, the
14 total budget authority proposed in the NRC budget
15 request, the Congressional Budget Justification, or
16 CBJ, for the salaries and expense and the inspector
17 general appropriations is $979.2 million. Excluded
18 activities of $156 million are subtracted from the
19 $979.2 million total budget authority, and the
20 excluded activities consist of generic homeland
21 security,WasteIncidental to Reprocessing,the IG
22 activities in support of the Defense Nuclear
23 Facilities Safety Board, the advanced reactor
24 regulatory infrastructure, and fee-relief. The
25 100-percent recovery rate under NEIMA is then NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 21
1 applied, resulting in the total amount to be
2 recovered of $823.2 million.
3 Billing adjustments for Part 171 fee
4 collections are applied. Generally, these are fees
5 billed in the prior fiscal year but paid in the
6 current fiscal year, plus estimates of this year's
7 bill fees that will be unpaid by September 30th.
8 The second circle shows the adjusted fee recovery
9 amount of $825 million after the adjustments are
10 calculated in the number. The estimated Part 170
11 fees of $205.5 million as updated to reflect
12 current workload projections are subtracted from
13 the adjustment fee recovery amount to determine the
14 remainder to be collected in Part 171 annual fees,
15 and that total is $620.2 million.
16 Below, is a breakdown of the excluded
17 activities, the amount that's in fee-relief
18 activities and the amount that resultfrom
19 statutory activities, with a total of $156 million
20 in fee-relief and excluded activities.
21 Next slide, please. This slide
22 illustrates the annual hourly rate determination
23 which is the first step in estimating Part 170
24 fees. Three components make up the resources that
25 are used in the development of the hourly rate:
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 22
1 first, mission-direct programs salaries and
2 benefits, which are the resources used to
3 accomplish direct-mission program activities;
4 mission-indirect program support, which are the
5 indirect resources that support the agency's core
6 activities, such as supervisory and administrative
7 assistant support.Agency support is made up of
8 corporate support offices, for example financial
9 services, IT, human resources, and then finally the
10 inspector general resources. These activities add
11 up to a subtotal of $834.1 million, less any
12 offsetting receipts. After deducting offsetting
13 receipts, if any, the total budgeted resources
14 included in a professional hourly rate of $834.1
15 million is determined.
16 Total productive hours is the product of
17 multiplying the mission-direct FTEs of 1,730 by the
18 mission-direct productive hours of 1,500. The
19 mission-direct productive hours represent the
20 annual full-time equivalent work hours of 2,087,
21 less non-work hours such as leave, training, et
22 cetera, based upon the average annual usage. This
23 total is 2,595,000 direct hours.
24 The total budgetary resources included
25 in the professional hourly rate of $834 million is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 23
1 then divided by the product of multiplying mission-
2 direct FTEs by the mission-direct FTE productive
3 hours3.472222e-5 days <br />8.333333e-4 hours <br />4.960317e-6 weeks <br />1.1415e-6 months <br />, so 1730 times 1500, which results in the
4 hourly rate for the fiscal year 2024 proposed fee
5 rule of $321 per hour. And this methodology for
6 the hourly rate is based on full-cost recovery per
7 the OMB Circular No. A-25 user charges.
8 Next slide, please. The pie charts here
9 presented in this slide illustrate a reconciliation
10 between the Congressional Budget Justification
11 requested funding compared to the allocation of the
12 budget by fee class. The percentages of the
13 appropriated resources vary between the
14 Congressional Budget Justification business lines
15 and the fee rule allocation by fee class. As shown
16 on the first pie chart, there's a business line for
17 decommissioning and low-level waste capturing three
18 percent of the $979.2 million in budgeted
19 resources. However, when allocated for the fee
20 rule, these resources are spread into multiple fee
21 classes and even fee-relief categories, as they
22 support multiple fee classes.
23 Another important distinction between
24 the charts is the corporate support and OIG
25 business line budgets that are not identified NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 24
1 within a specific fee class. Instead, those
2 resources are spread throughout fee classes and
3 fee-relief activities as agency support in
4 formulating fees. Reconciliations of the fiscal
5 year 2024 business line budgets published in the
6 CBJ to the proposed fee classes are available in
7 the fee rulework papers located on the NRC's
8 public website.
9 Next slide, please. In the next few
10 slides,I'll be reviewing the fee calculates for
11 the fee classes that are to be discussed in the
12 following presentations. This slide illustrates
13 the operating power reactors fees over the last
14 four years, including this year's proposed annual
15 fee. This chart illustrates the main components of
16 this year's proposed fees, the budgeted resources,
17 the 10CFRPart170estimated billings, any
18 adjustments, annual fee resources, the licensee
19 count, and the proposed annual fee.
20 The budgeted resources allocated to the
21 operating power reactors fee class is $675.1
22 million, which is a $9.8 million increase or
23 approximately 1.5 percent higher than fiscal year
24 2023. The main contributing factor to the rise in
25 resources is to support new reactor licensing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 25
1 activities, including the review of standard design
2 approvals, pre-application activities, and
3 construction permits. In addition, there was an
4 increasein the budgeted resources due to an
5 increase in salaries and benefits. However, the
6 effect of the increase on the proposed annual fee
7 for the operating power reactors fee class is
8 offset primarily due to the proposed use of
9 $27.1million in carryover to offset the nuclear
10 reactor safety budget as described in the fiscal
11 year 2024 budget request.
12 There was also a decrease in the budget
13 due to: one, an expected decline in topical report
14 submissions, guidance development, and process
15 improvement activities; two, a reduction in
16 construction inspection activities due to the
17 transition of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant,
18 Vogtle Unit 3,and the expected transition of
19 Vogtle Unit 4 from construction into operation; and
20 three, a reduction in rulemaking activities.
21 The fee for services, 10CFRPart170,
22 is the second component, and these are the services
23 for the operating and new reactors, and that
24 totaled $165.3 million, which increased by $6.4
25 million, or approximately 4 percent, from the prior NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 26
1 year. The primary reason for the increase in
2 Part170 workload was increases in license renewals
3 and new reactor licensing activities.
4 The adjustments for Part171annual fees
5 rose by $1.8 million as compared with fiscal year
6 2023 resulting from the timing of invoices that
7 were issued in fiscal year 2023,but paid in fiscal
8 year 2024, which is about $2.1 million,and an
9 increase in the generic transportation surcharge of
10 about $600,000 due to an increase in the overall
11 budgeted resources for certificates of compliance
12 for the operating power reactors fee class; and
13 then, finally, low-level waste of approximately
14 $3.3 million.
15 The annual fee resources, and this
16 results in the remaining 10CFRPart171 annual fee
17 resources recovery amount of $515.9 million, an
18 increase of $5.2 million, or approximately 1
19 percent. That total is divided by 94 operating
20 reactors, which incorporates proposed inclusion of
21 Vogtle Unit 4 in the operating power reactors
22 fleet, resulting in an annual fee per reactor of
23 $5,488,000.
24 Next slide, please. This slide provides
25 an overview of the spent fuel storage/reactor NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 27
1 decommissioning fee class fees over the last four
2 years, including this year's proposed annual fee.
3 The budgeted resources allocated to the spent fuel
4 storage/reactor decommissioning fee class is $51
5 million, an increase of $8.1 million, or
6 approximately 19 percent higher than fiscal year
7 2023. Factors contributing to the increase
8 include: one, an increase in FTEs to support
9 licensing and oversight activities for the reactor
10 decommissioning program, which includes both power
11 and non-power reactors in various stages of
12 decommissioning; andtwo, an increase in the fully-
13 costed FTE rate compared to fiscal year 2023 due to
14 an increase in salaries and benefits.
15 Next, the 10CFRPart170estimated
16 billings for services for this fee class totaled
17 $12.2 million, which decreased by $200,000, or
18 approximately 1.6 percent, from the prior year.
19 The expected decrease in 10CFRPart170workload
20 is due to: one, the completion of the safety and
21 environmental review of the Holtec HI-STORE
22 Consolidated Interim Storage Facility application;
23 two, the termination of thelicense for the La
24 Crosse Boiling Water Reactor; andthree, a decrease
25 in decommissioning licensing andinspection NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 28
1 activities at multiple sites. This decline is
2 expected to be partially offset by the following:
3 one, a rise in hours to support the staff's review
4 of a new fuel storage system; andtwo, an increase
5 to support the staff's review of applications for
6 renewals, amendments, exemptions, and inspections
7 for independent spent fuel storage installations
8 and dry cask storage certificates of compliance at
9 multiple sites.
10 The adjustments for Part170 annual fee
11 rose by $600,000, or approximately 38 percent, as
12 compared with fiscal year 2023 due to the following
13 factors: one, an increase in the generic
14 transportation surcharge due to an increase in the
15 generic transportation budgeted resources for the
16 spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioningfee
17 class; and, two, an increase in the 10CFRPart171
18 billing adjustment to the timing of invoices that
19 were issued in fiscal year 2023 but paid in fiscal
20 year 2024. This results in the remaining
21 10CFRPart 171 annual fee resources recovery
22 amount of $41 million, an increase of $8.9million,
23 or approximately 27.7 percent over fiscal year
24 2023. That total is divided by 124 spent fuel
25 storage facilities, which incorporates the proposed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 29
1 inclusion of Vogtle Unit 4 in the count, resulting
2 in an annual fee of $330,000.
3 Next slide, please. This slide
4 illustrates the fuel facilities proposed fees for
5 fiscal year 2024. The budgeted resources allocated
6 to the fuel facilities fee class are $32.4 million,
7 which is an increase of $5.8 million, or
8 approximately 21.8 percent higher than in fiscal
9 year 2023. The factors contributing to the
10 increase in the budget include: one, the review of
11 licensing actions related to enrichment and
12 manufacturing of high-assay low-enrichment uranium
13 orHALEU fuel,and accidenttolerant fuel; two, the
14 review of two fuel facility license applications;
15 the development and maintenance of licensing
16 guidance; four, emergency preparedness and physical
17 security reviews for license amendments and
18 renewals; five, programmatic oversight activities
19 in support of Category II fuel facilities and an
20 anticipated new fuel facility; six, associated fuel
21 facilities rulemaking activities; andseven, an
22 increase in the fully-costed FTE rate compared to
23 fiscal year 2023 due to an increase in salaries and
24 benefits.
25 Next, the 10CFRPart170estimated NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 30
1 billings for this fee class total $10.5 million, an
2 increase of $1.3 million, or approximately 14.1
3 percent, from the prior year. Some expected
4 increases include: one, the continued review of
5 the TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility application;
6 two, the review of anticipated license amendment
7 requests; andthree, the review of the National
8 Institute of Standards and Technologyslicense
9 renewal application for possession and use of
10 special nuclear material. These increases are
11 offset by the following: one, the completion of a
12 review of Westinghouse Electric Company's license
13 transfer application; two, the near completion of
14 the review of the Global Nuclear Fuel Americas
15 amendment for an increase in enrichment activities
16 up to 8 weight percent Uranium-235; and, three, the
17 delay of the submittal of Global Nuclear Fuel
18 Americas amendment for an increase in enrichment
19 activities up to 20 weight percent Uranium-235;
20 and, four, the delay of a new fuel facility
21 application.
22 Adjustments for 10CFRPart171 rose by
23 $700,000, or approximately 30.4 percent, as
24 compared with fiscal year 2023 due to the following
25 factors: one, a rise in generic transportation NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 31
1 surcharge due to a new certificate of compliance
2 within the fuel facilities fee class; andtwo, a
3 surcharge in the 10CFRPart171 billing adjustment
4 due to the timing of invoices in fiscal year 2023.
5 This results in a remaining 10CFRPart171 annual
6 fee resources recovery of $24.9 million, an
7 increase of $5.2 million, or approximately 26.4
8 percent, over fiscal year 2023.
9 The effort factors for both safety and
10 safeguards remain unchanged for most licensees,
11 except for the safeguard effort factors for fee
12 category 2.A.(1) UF6 since the NRC authorized the
13 Centrus American Centrifuge Plant to begin its
14 HALEU demonstration program operations at the
15 Category II level on September 21, 2023.
16 This concludes my presentation, and I
17 will turn it over to Brian Smith to provide an
18 overview of operating and new reactors business
19 lines. Brian.
20 MR. SMITH: Thank you, Tony. Good
21 morning, everyone. My name is Brian Smith. I'm
22 the Director of the Division of New and Renewed
23 Licenses in NRR. I'll be providing an overview of
24 the budget for the NRC new reactor safety program,
25 which is comprised of both the operating reactors NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 32
1 and new reactors business lines.
2 The program encompasses licensing and
3 oversight of civilian nuclear power reactors, as
4 well as non-power production and utilization
5 facilities, research and test reactors for example.
6 The goal of the program is to ensure that those
7 activities are completed in a manner that protects
8 public health and safety. It also provides
9 reasonable assurance of the security of facilities
10 and protection against radiological sabotage.
11 The operating reactors and new reactors
12 business lines can be split between mission-direct,
13 mission-indirect, and excluded resources. Mission-
14 direct resources account for about 75 percent of
15 the enacted budget of 1,729 FTE in fiscal year
16 2024. Mission-indirect resources account for
17 approximately 20 percent of the enacted budget and
18 support supervisors, administrative assistants,
19 program analysts, and travel needs.
20 Next slide, please. Licensing and
21 oversight are the most significant mission-direct
22 product lines. Examples of some of the activities
23 performed within those product lines are shown on
24 this slide. The NRC ensures the safety and
25 security of operating power reactors and non-power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 33
1 production and utilization facilities within our
2 established regulatory framework. We license
3 reactors to operate, and we ensure that new and
4 existing reactor designs meet regulatory
5 requirements. We also oversee the continued safe
6 operation of those reactors through our inspection
7 program.
8 In the operating reactors business line,
9 we continue to see interest in programs that
10 provide increased operational flexibility, as well
11 as continued development of licensing
12 infrastructure and review of accident-tolerant
13 fuel. Requests for subsequent license renewal,
14 which represents an extension of a license from 60
15 to 80 years, has continued to increase, and the NRC
16 has invested significant resources in ensuring that
17 can be done safely.
18 Oversight activities are the largest
19 portion of the business line, and it was recently
20 increased with the startup of the two new Vogtle
21 units. This portion of activities includes the on-
22 site resident inspectors at each power reactor, as
23 well as the safety and security inspections
24 conducted out of our four regional offices.
25 In the new reactors business line, we NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 34
1 are conducting a technical review of one standard
2 design approval application, and we expect two
3 construction permit applications to be submitted
4 later this fiscal year. We are also conducting
5 pre-application meetings with numerous light-water
6 SMR and non-light water advanced reactor
7 developers, and we're reviewing topical reports and
8 white papers associated with these future designs.
9 Next slide, please. To develop the
10 budgets for the operating reactors and new reactors
11 business lines, we first review the current
12 environment and perform workload forecasting. As
13 part of that, we look for significant drivers that
14 could impact our future workload. This includes
15 technical, regulatory, and legislative developments
16 that have the potential to either generate
17 additional work or to reduce work. That could
18 include a rulemaking or guidance change that we
19 expect to drive new submittals from licensees or
20 known plant closures that will reduce the overall
21 size of our program.
22 We then look at the historical data and
23 trends to measure how our execution in previous
24 years lines up with the budget assumptions at the
25 time. We use that data to inform the future budget NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 35
1 and identify areas where the assumptions we used
2 previously are still applicable with the future
3 work we anticipate.The historical data also allows
4 us to employ some trending for areas where the
5 workload in a given year can be highly variable in
6 terms of quantity and complexity or where we can
7 incorporate efficiencies gained based on previous
8 data.
9 We also rely heavily on communication
10 with our stakeholders to identify accurate dates
11 for planned submittals. We consider letters of
12 intent provided by licensees and applicants to the
13 NRC, we collect information from our project
14 managers, and we consider responses to our periodic
15 regulatory issue summaries on that topic. In order
16 to budget for large licensing projects, we try to
17 balance the appropriate resource needs against the
18 relative certainty that an application will be
19 submitted on schedule and when in the year the
20 application is expected, for example at the
21 beginning or end of the fiscal year.
22 We recognize that business plans within
23 the industry are subject to change and may be
24 influenced by many factors, but this is an area
25 where better certainty in the information received NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 36
1 leads to more accurate budgeting for the NRC.
2 Also, we've identified the workload
3 drivers to determine the level of effort needed in
4 each of our areas of responsibility. We develop
5 and assign resources for major projects and then
6 allocate those resources across the NRC offices to
7 align with the type of work being performed.
8 Next slide, please. One point I want to
9 make clear is that we develop our budget,and the
10 Part170 fee estimates on different timelines. The
11 operating reactors and new reactor budgets, just
12 like our other business line budgets, are prepared
13 two years in advance. This budget includes
14 resources to be recovered through the assessment of
15 Part170 fees, in addition to resources for all
16 other mission-direct and mission-indirect programs.
17 The budget reflects anticipated changes in the
18 Part170 workload, such as the permanent closure of
19 power plants or new licensing applications.
20 The Part170 fee estimates are prepared
21 at the beginning of a given fiscal year. Fact-of-
22 life changes in the intervening time will drive the
23 Part170 fee estimates lower or higher than what
24 was anticipated in the budget. Changes, such as a
25 license renewal application that was submitted NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 37
1 early, a delayed application for a design
2 certification, an early reactor closure, or a
3 canceled application for a combined operating
4 license will impact the Part170 fee estimates and,
5 in turn, impact the Part171 annual fee.
6 Next slide, please. In the new reactors
7 business line,the fiscal year 2024 budget includes
8 increases for anticipated reviews of construction
9 permits and standard design approval applications.
10 Licensing and construction activities at the new
11 Vogtle units were taken out of the fiscal year 2024
12 budget based on the assumption that transition
13 operations would be complete for the site. I'll
14 mention here that salaries and benefits increases,
15 while not a workload driver, were a significant
16 contribution to increases in the total budget
17 amount, as well.
18 In comparison to the fiscal year 2023
19 actual collections, fiscal year 2024 Part170 fee
20 estimates in the new reactors business line are
21 higher due to the ongoing NuScale standard design
22 approval review and an increase in pre-application
23 activity with potential applicants. Estimated
24 Part170 fees for construction oversight decreased
25 as Vogtle Unit 4 neared commercial operation.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 38
1 Next slide, please. In the operating
2 reactors business line, the fiscal year 2024 budget
3 increased primarily due increased salaries and
4 benefits cost. The budgeted FTE and contractor
5 support remained essentially flat and included a
6 small increase for license renewal applications and
7 reductions in licensing action infrastructure
8 development. In comparison to fiscal year 2023
9 actual collections, the fiscal year 2024 Part170
10 fee estimates saw a small increase. This is due to
11 an increase in license renewal reviews and
12 operating reactors inspection activity.
13 Now I'll turn to the meeting over to
14 Samantha Lav, Chief of the Fuel Facility Licensing
15 Branch, Division of Fuel Management, at NMSS.
16 MS. LAV: Thank you, Brian. Good
17 morning. As Brian mentioned, my name is Samantha
18 Lav, and I'm Chief of the Fuel Facility Licensing
19 Branch at NMSS. And it's a pleasure to be here
20 this morning. Today, I'll discuss the main
21 activities in the fuel facility business line, how
22 we develop the budget, the changes in workload from
23 FY2023, and how that impacts both Part170 fees
24 for service and Part171 annual fees.
25 Next slide, please. The fuel facility NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 39
1 business line conducts licensing, oversight, and
2 regulatory activities for eight major fuel
3 facilities and ten greater-than-critical-mass
4 licensees. The major activities cover licensing,
5 oversight, rulemaking, and international
6 activities. We also perform event response and
7 generic homeland security activities. In the fuel
8 facility business line, we develop and maintain
9 fuel facility licensing program; conduct safety,
10 security, and environmental reviews of license
11 applications, amendments, and renewals for fuel
12 facilities and greater-than-critical-mass
13 facilities. We also develop and maintain a fuel
14 facility oversight program, conduct inspections of
15 operating facilities, and also inspections of
16 facilities under construction. We also perform
17 rulemaking activities and associated guidance
18 development, conduct nonproliferation activities,
19 and we work with international counterparts.
20 Next slide, please. To develop the
21 facility budget which informs fees, the NRC
22 considers its workload, the type and scope of work,
23 and historical resource utilization. To gauge
24 potential licensing workload, we rely on letters of
25 intent for application engagements, routine calls NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 40
1 for licensees and applicants to both understand
2 their plans, and the external factors that could
3 impact the timing and scope of submittals. We also
4 have routine engagements with federal partners and
5 keep track of related reactor licensing actions.
6 We also consider the potential type and complexity
7 of submittals.
8 Forinspections, we consider the number
9 of operating facilities and the scope and frequency
10 of routine inspections for these facilities. We
11 also consider the number and type of facilities
12 under construction and number of operational
13 readiness reviews.
14 Our resource estimates are developed
15 using budget models for different types of
16 licensing actions and inspections that are informed
17 by historical resource expenditures. We also
18 consider the confidence we have in the submittal
19 timelineand historical submittal rates.
20 Next slide, please. The primary changes
21 in the FY2024 budget from the FY2023 budget are
22 an increase in salariesand benefits, forthe
23 review of licensing actions related to enrichment
24 and manufacturing of HALEU fuel and accident
25 tolerant fuel, thecontinued review of the TRISO-X NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 41
1 new fuel facility license application and the
2 review of a 10CFRPart70 application, thereview
3 of two greater-than-critical-mass license renewal
4 applications, programmatic oversight of Category II
5 fuel facilities and an anticipated new facility,
6 theassociated fuel facility rulemaking activities.
7 Thereweredecreasesforthecompletion of the
8 Westinghouse license transfer, thecompletion of
9 the GNFA amendment for an increase in enrichment
10 activities, and cost-sharing redistribution for
11 shared IT services and a decrease in funding for
12 maintenance of Network OperationsCenter services
13 to align with actual costs.
14 Next slide. The NRC is required by
15 NEIMA to recover,to the maximum extent
16 practicable,approximately 100 percent of the
17 annual budgetauthority, less the budget authority
18 for excluded activities. Broadly speaking, the NRC
19 recovers its annual budget through two types of
20 fees: service fees under 10CFRPart170 and
21 annual fees under 10CFRPart171.
22 Under NEIMA, the NRC must first collect
23 service fees for NRC work that provides specific
24 benefits to applicants and licensees, such as
25 licensing and inspection. Because these service NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 42
1 fees will not equal approximately 100 percent of
2 the agency's budget authority, the NRC must also
3 assess annual fees. Therefore, Part170 fees are
4 inversely related to the project annual fee for fee
5 class. The more the NRC collects in Part170
6 billings, the less it must collect in annual fees.
7 If licensing and oversight activities that were
8 included in the budget are delayed, that portion of
9 the budget will be recovered through annual fees.
10 For FY 2024, the Part170 estimated
11 billings have increased in comparison to 2023.
12 These increases are driven by the continued review
13 of the TRISO-X new fuel facility application,
14 review of HALEU and ATF-related licensing actions,
15 routine licensing and oversight of fuel facilities
16 and greater-than-critical-mass facilities,
17 operational readiness reviews and inspection
18 activities for Category II licensee, and thereview
19 of one greater-than-critical-mass license renewal
20 application.
21 The annual fees are driven by salaries
22 and benefit increases, rulemaking, licensing and
23 inspection guidance development, the delay of one
24 advanced reactor fuel-related amendment, the delay
25 of one new Part170 application, and construction NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 43
1 inspection delays. We recognize that the delayed
2 submittals and inspection for budgeted work has
3 resulted in a large increase in annual fees for
4 fuel facilities over the past two years.
5 Addressing this issue is a focus for NRC management
6 and staff. We've been actively working to identify
7 and implement options for addressing these fact-of-
8 life changes during the budget formulation process
9 and, where possible, during budget execution within
10 our appropriation constraints. Over the past year,
11 we've held three public meetings on this issue,and
12 we welcome continued discussion with our
13 stakeholders.
14 Thank you. I'll now turn it over to Jen
15 Whitman to talk about thedecommissioning and the
16 low-level waste business line.
17 MS. WHITMAN: Thanks, Samantha. I'm Jen
18 Whitman, the Deputy Director of the Division of
19 Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste
20 Programs in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety
21 and Safeguards. Today, I am going to provide
22 information on the activities that drive the
23 budgetary resources needed to implement the NRC's
24 strategic goals and objectives for decommissioning
25 and low-level waste business line.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 44
1 Next slide, please. The decommissioning
2 and low-level waste business line provides
3 licensing and oversight for the decommissioning of
4 power reactors,research andtest reactors, complex
5 material facilities, fuel facilities, and uranium
6 recovery facilities with the ultimate goal of
7 license determination. The business line also
8 provides licensing and oversight for uranium
9 recovery facilities. We provide support to the
10 military and non-military radium programs. We
11 perform safety and environmental reviews across all
12 of these programs.
13 We also perform and support inspection
14 activities for both headquarters and the regions.
15 We execute our responsibilities for Waste
16 Incidental to Reprocessing, or the WIR program.
17 And we support the national low-level waste
18 program.
19 Some of the major activities of the
20 business line this year are the following: We're
21 conducting licensing reviews and decommissioning
22 activities for 23 power reactors, including 16 in
23 active decommissioning. I'm proud to say that the
24 staff was able to complete both the La Crosse and
25 Zion Units 1 and 2 partial site release reviews NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 45
1 over the past year, which effectively terminates
2 the 10CFRPart50 license outside of the remaining
3 on-site independent spent fuel storage
4 installation.
5 We are also supporting the
6 decommissioning of two research and test reactors.
7 We continue to support the licensing and oversight
8 of eight complex material sites that are undergoing
9 decommissioning at the depleted uranium sites.
10 We're supporting the licensing and oversight of
11 three uranium recovery sites and five uranium
12 recovery decommissioning sites.
13 We also provide support to 26
14 decommissioning uranium mill disposal and
15 processing facilities that are undergoing long-term
16 care surveillance and maintenance by the Department
17 of Energy.
18 In support of the national low-level
19 waste program, we're working on the development of
20 guidance, providing support to the impact
21 evaluations in the low-level waste area, and
22 responding to unique inquiries from Agreement
23 States. Our oversight of the activities related to
24 the WIR program include monitoring activities at
25 the DOE Savannah River site and the Idaho National NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 46
1 Laboratory.
2 Next slide, please. To support our
3 budget development, similar to what Brian and
4 Samantha provided before, we begin with workload
5 forecasting. We maintain continuous communications
6 with our licensees, and we use letters of intent
7 that we receive for upcoming license applications.
8 In our budget estimates, we estimate the
9 resources needed to complete those licensing
10 activities, such as the safety and environmental
11 reviews, as well as the oversight through
12 inspection activities based on where we expect the
13 particular actions to be in the licensing and
14 decommissioning process in the projected budget
15 year.
16 The cost of completing the licensing and
17 oversight reviews and activities varies, depending
18 on the level of complexity of the request, whether
19 it's for a power reactor in active decommissioning
20 that would, for example, have additional resource
21 requirements compared to a reactor in safe storage.
22 So,each one requires a different level of effort
23 and resources.
24 We also consider historical information,
25 and we are always learning from our execution data NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 47
1 for similar past efforts. We budget for hearings
2 with consideration of the number of hearings we
3 anticipate based on the licensing actions that we
4 expect, and we also consider the level of public
5 interest in those particular projects to help with
6 our estimates for resources associated with
7 hearings, as well as the past historical
8 information for resources on hearings.
9 In thebudget development for FY2022,
10 we created a new reactor decommissioning model, and
11 so this FY2024 budget used that new model which
12 was developed to address our historical
13 expenditures on reactor decommissioning. And,
14 additionally, the changes that we're seeing in
15 decommissioning strategies move towards more active
16 decommissioning earlier.
17 Next slide, please. So,our budget
18 adjustments for FY2024, as you heard earlier, this
19 is primarily driven by the expected work in the
20 reactor decommissioning area and an increase in the
21 fully costedFTE rate compared to FY2023 due to an
22 increase in salaries and benefits and the revised
23 reactor budget formulation model to address the
24 change in decommissioning strategies.
25 So,the increase in work is for the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 48
1 expected workload that was budgeted was seven
2 license termination plans that were expected to
3 come in between FY2022, 23, and 24, and then still
4 be under review in 2024. However, licensee
5 schedules have shifted. Things have been delayed.
6 We currently in-house have five LTPs, but one was
7 the recently completed; and another, the acceptance
8 review is completed but then that was withdrawn,
9 and we expect it to come back in revised later this
10 year.
11 In addition, we are also reviewing a
12 number of unique first-of-a-kind licensing reviews,
13 such as alternative decommissioning schedules
14 leading to an increase in the related licensing and
15 oversight work for those sites. And we have also
16 been informed about accelerated decommissioning
17 schedules for four licenses.
18 So,as I said earlier, we have 23 power
19 reactors in various states of decommissioning,
20 including 16 in active decommissioning and 7 in
21 safe store. And there are final status survey
22 reviews and an increase in planned confirmation
23 survey work at multiple sites compared to FY2023.
24 So,the decreases for the 2024 budget
25 were related to, as I mentioned earlier, the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 49
1 several license termination activities that were
2 completed and a number of licensing activities
3 related to reactors that have transitioned to
4 decommissioning.
5 So,with that, I will turn it over to
6 Melissa Chui.
7 MS. CHUI: Thank you, Jen. Good
8 morning, everyone. My name is Melissa Chui. I'm
9 with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
10 I'll be discussing the proposed administrative
11 change to payment methods.
12 Next slide, please. Here are some
13 background information on the proposed
14 administrative change to payment methods.
15 Paperless payment methods were initiated to comply
16 with the U.S. Department of the Treasury mandate,
17 and it was incorporated in the NRC fiscal year 2024
18 proposed fee rule. The initiative offers licensees
19 and stakeholders electronic payment options only,
20 and theNRC is expected to transition from paper-
21 based collections to electronic methods by
22 September 30th this year.
23 For assistance with the transitioning to
24 electronic payments, licensees and stakeholders can
25 contact us through the fees resource email address NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 50
1 or phone number listed on this slide.
2 Next slide, please. Currently, theNRC
3 accepts four electronic payment methods through
4 pay.gov listed on this slide. Step-by-step
5 instructions on making electronic payments through
6 pay.gov can be found on theNRCspublic website.
7 And, furthermore, a video showcasing the initiative
8 with pay.gov payment instructions will be shown at
9 the upcoming Regulatory Information Conference that
10 will be held next week, March 12th through the
11 14th, at the Bethesda North Marriott Conference
12 Center across from NRC Headquarters in Rockville,
13 or you can view it virtually on the NRC public
14 website.
15 So,in addition to Pay.gov, for
16 international payments, licensees and stakeholders
17 can use FedWire or PayPal for making payments. By
18 theend of September this year, the NRC is expected
19 to transition from paper-based collections to
20 electronic payments.
21 Next slide, please. Lastly, for the
22 nine Title 10 Code of Federal Regulationslisted on
23 this slide, their payment methods will transition
24 from paper-based collections to electronic methods
25 by September30th this year.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 51
1 That concludes my presentation. Thank
2 you so much for your time. I'll turn the meeting
3 back to Sophie.
4 MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you, Melissa. Thank
5 you, Marc, Tony, Brian, Samantha, and Jen for your
6 respective presentations.
7 We have allotted approximately 30
8 minutes for this question-and-answer portion of the
9 meeting. This is your opportunity to ask
10 clarifying questions of the NRC staff. Should we
11 run out of time to address any follow-up questions,
12 the NRC staff will include your questions and their
13 responses as part of the meeting summary.
14 As a reminder, the NRC is not accepting
15 any comments made at today's meeting as official
16 comments on the proposed rule. Rather, comments
17 will have to be submitted in writing to receive
18 formal consideration.
19 To ask a question, please utilize the
20 raise-hand feature on Teams. You can find this at
21 the top of your window with the hand icon. For
22 those of you who have joined us via the audio
23 bridgeline, you can dial star-5 to raise your hand.
24 Teams will automatically put you into the queue in
25 order of hand-raising. Once I have called your NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 52
1 name, I will unmute your microphone. And if you're
2 on the audio bridgeline, you may have to dial star-
3 6 to unmute your microphone. Once I've unmuted
4 you, you are free to ask your question.
5 To ensure that everyone is given an
6 opportunity to ask their questions, should they
7 have any, we ask that you ask only one question at
8 a time. If there are no additional questions or
9 time permits, we will take your additional
10 questions.
11 As a kind reminder, please state your
12 name and your affiliation, if applicable, for the
13 court reporter. And if there's a particular panel
14 member that you would like to direct your question
15 to, you may also do that.
16 I do see a few hands raised, so give me
17 one moment and I will begin unmuting individuals.
18 All right. First up, I see a hand from Mr. John
19 Butler. John, you should be able to unmute your
20 microphone. Please state your name and your
21 affiliation for the court reporter. John.
22 MR. BUTLER: John Butler with NEI.
23 First off, thank you very much for this meeting.
24 It's always helpful to be able to ask people
25 questions.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 53
1 My question is related to the use of
2 carryover. Can someone give a little bit of a
3 rationale of how the amount was determined for the
4 2024 budget and the allocation, how that was
5 determined? Right now, I think it's all going to
6 the reactor safety budget and, as a result, the
7 increase in the Part171 fees for that fee class
8 are marginally, they're relatively small. By
9 contrast, the fee increase for fuel facilities and
10 decommissioning are significant in the 2024 budget
11 and could have benefitted from some ofthe use of
12 the oversight. So,I'd like a little bit more
13 information on how that was determined in the 2024
14 budget. Thank you.
15 MS. JACOBS: Just one moment, John.
16 John, this is Jo Jacobs. Do you mind repeating
17 your question?
18 MR. BUTLER: I'm just looking for a
19 little bit of information of how the use of
20 carryover in the 2024 budget, the $27.1 million,
21 was determined both in the magnitude of carryover
22 that was utilized, since 27.1 is only a portion of
23 the approximately $100 million in carry over, and
24 how the distribution of that carryover was
25 determined. Currently, it's all going to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 54
1 reactor safety budget versus other budgets. So,
2 I'm looking for the rationale for the magnitude in
3 distribution.
4 MR. ROSSI: Hi, John. Thank you for the
5 question. The decision for the carryover offset of
6 $27.1million to the reactor safety control point
7 was based on our forecasts at the time the budget
8 was formulated for our carryover estimates for
9 reactor safety available during that time during
10 the budget formulation process. And that was our
11 best estimate at the time, and that was what was
12 included in the budget request.
13 Does that answer your question? The
14 details of what that estimate was, I mean, we'll
15 have to get back to you on that if that's what
16 you're looking for, but that was our best estimate.
17 During the year, you know, we continue to monitor
18 what we think is going to be carryover for the
19 year. And, of course, as you know, the budget is
20 formulated a year and a half or two years in
21 advance of the execution year, so that is our best
22 estimate based on activity at that point, at the
23 point of budget formulation.
24 MS. GOLDER: John, this is Jennifer
25 Golder.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 55
1 MR. BUTLER: Yes.
2 MS. GOLDER: Hi. The decision to apply
3 a carryover offset of $27.1million to the reactor
4 safety control point was based on the forecast of
5 fee-based carryover estimates for reactor safety
6 that was available during budget formulation.
7 MR. BUTLER: All right. I understand.
8 And just as a suggestion, perhaps in future
9 budgets, perhaps it's too late for the 2025 budget,
10 but providing yourself with a little bit more
11 latitude on how that carryover can be distributed
12 might be advisable to minimize the surprises that
13 the different fee classes see during the budget.
14 MS. GOLDER: Thank you. Thank you for
15 the feedback.
16 MS. HOLIDAY: Christine, did you want to
17 respond before I go to the next person?
18 MS. GALSTER: Yes. Hi, John. This is
19 Christine Galster, OCFO Fee Policy. Thank you for
20 joining us again.
21 I just wanted to add to that that this
22 was the first year that we incorporated utilizing
23 carryover within the CBJ budget. Normally, we have
24 to wait,and normally have waited,until we receive
25 the appropriation to actually incorporate any NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 56
1 carryover in our fee calculationsfor the proposed
2 fee rule. So,this was actually the first time, so
3 I just wanted to bring that up.
4 MR. BUTLER: Oh, I recognize that, and I
5 applaud your doing so. Thank you very much.
6 MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you so much for your
7 question, John. And thank you, Christine, Tony,
8 and Jennifer for coming on to respond.
9 Okay. With that, we're going to move on
10 to the next person. Hilary, I see that your hand
11 is raised. You should be able to unmute your
12 microphone.
13 MS. LANE: Okay. Great. Thanks,
14 Sophie. This is Hilary Lane with NEI, as well. My
15 question is related to the research and test
16 reactor fees, the NPUF fees, or non-power. There's
17 a lot of nomenclature there. We understand that
18 for FY2025, so for next year, the number of fee-
19 paying licensees in that class may be moving down
20 from three to two. So,we wanted to see if the
21 staff is considering that, you know, significant
22 reduction now and working towards any mitigative
23 solutions so that we don't see, you know, a
24 disproportionate impact to the two remaining
25 licensees that are going to be carrying that fee NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 57
1 base for that fee next year. Thanks.
2 MR. ROSSI: Hi. We are aware that the
3 number of licensees are going to decrease in the
4 NPUF fee class, and we are considering that in our
5 budgeting and fee calculation.
6 MR. SMITH: Hi, Hilary. This is Brian
7 Smith. So,the fiscal year 2025 budget is somewhat
8 out of our hands at the moment, but we do recognize
9 that there is a decrease. I think that we weren't
10 aware of thatpotential change at the time we were
11 developing the budget, and so we'll see what we can
12 do. We try to adjust things from year to year for
13 this fee class to try to minimize the potential
14 swings in the annual fee amounts.
15 MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you, Brian. Thank
16 you, Tony. Okay. I see only one other hand
17 raised, so I don't see any other hands, so, John,
18 we'll go back to you. You should be able to unmute
19 your microphone.
20 MR. BUTLER: Great. Thank you.
21 Hopefully, this is an easy question to answer or a
22 quick response. How much in the 2024 budget is
23 being used to subsidize the rent in Three White
24 Flint for FDA and NIA --or NIH?
25 MS. JACOBS: Hi, John. This is Jo NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 58
1 Butler. We can try to get that information for
2 you.
3 MS. GOLDER: John, this is Jennifer
4 Golder. Hi again. I think it's around $6 million.
5 We would have to definitely get back. I want to
6 make sure we have the right amount before we
7 respond, but that's approximate.
8 MR. BUTLER: All right. And do you know
9 offhand when that subsidy will end as a matter of
10 course of completing, you know, I don't know,
11 obligations there?
12 MS. GOLDER: I believe it ends in 2027.
13 MR. BUTLER: Okay.
14 MS. GOLDER: And we will confirm that.
15 MR. BUTLER: All right. Thank you.
16
17 MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you so much. Okay.
18 The next hand that I see raised is Janet Schlueter.
19 One moment, please, Janet. Okay. Janet, you
20 should be able to unmute your microphone.
21 MS. SCHLUETER: Yes. Thank you. Janet
22 Schlueter, NEI. And I wanted to direct my question
23 to Samantha on the fuel cycle facility business
24 line.
25 So, basically, as you know, we have been NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 59
1 receiving some annual budget discussions during
2 public meetings, our fuel cycle stakeholders
3 meeting, spring and fall, for the last few years,
4 and those have been very informative. We saw an
5 increase in FY2023 of, as you noted, almost 19
6 percent, and so we've had a lot of conversations
7 about NRC's planning assumptions, how industry can
8 do its best to inform those, where the milestones
9 are for you, when you can make changes, when you
10 can't. Those have all been very helpful.
11 We've written several letters, one last
12 July, when we realized that the FY2024 CBJ was
13 high because of the delayed license amendment you
14 mentioned. So,we started to engage. We had
15 public meetings November, December. We've written
16 three letters, I think, all trying to better
17 understand what NRC's process is and planning
18 assumptions when you prepared the 2024 CBJ but,
19 knowing last summer that it was too high, where NRC
20 did or did not have ability to adjust when it comes
21 to the FY2024 fee rule.
22 Now, I know it's based on the CBJ, and
23 so you had to put out what you put out. But we are
24 continuing to engage with you, and we have
25 appreciated those opportunities, but I think we're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 60
1 finding ourselves at a point now where we don't
2 know exactly what adjustments NRC may or may not be
3 making at this time as it prepares the final fee
4 rule, so we're concerned it's going to be just as
5 high, too high, for your program. And so,we're
6 interested in knowing, you know, what information
7 or is there information that you need from industry
8 now in the comment period to inform the final fee
9 rule.
10 Everybody is doing their best to predict
11 major license amendments, applications, and so
12 forth and so on. But unlike the other business
13 lines across the NRC, except I'll leave out the
14 spent fuel, which is also seeing a really high, you
15 know, increase for 2024, other business lines don't
16 seem to experience these large swings in the
17 budget. It's a small community, as you mentioned,
18 eight fuel facilities. So,any perturbation in
19 that system has this major ripple effect across.
20 And as you pointed out, if you don't
21 collect your billable hours, it rolls over into
22 annual fee. But we're at a time, in this industry
23 in particular, where we're trying to grow, we're
24 trying to expand, we're trying to meet increased
25 energy demand domestically, globally.The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 61
1 administration supports that. They're also trying
2 to help this industry, but it's very difficult to
3 do that when you have an unpredictable NRC fee
4 structure. It doesn't matter the actual dollar
5 amount. It's the percentage that we're
6 experiencing and the unpredictable nature of that.
7 Hard to plan.
8 This year, that increased cost cannot be
9 passed on, contracts are in place. They have to
10 eat it within their operating budgets. So,what
11 can we give you, what type of information can we
12 give you in the comment period that will help
13 inform the final fee rule so we can get this
14 percentage down to a more appropriate level? Thank
15 you.
16 MS. LAV: Thank you for that comment,
17 Janet. I really appreciate that,and I really
18 appreciate the discussions that we've had with the
19 industry at the semi-annual stakeholder meetings
20 and at our January 11th meeting on this issue. You
21 know, we recognize that, you know, this large of an
22 increase two years in a row is hard on licensees.
23 Like, we hear you, and that's not falling on deaf
24 ears. The information that we got about the major
25 delays for, you know, two major applications, as NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 62
1 well as the construction inspection delays, when we
2 got those in January and in November, that was
3 really after when we had the ability to make
4 changes in 2024 budget formulation, so the CBJ was
5 already set at that point.
6 So now our options are really looking at
7 what can we do within execution, and those are
8 limited. But we are challenging ourselves, you
9 know, what can we do, how can we focus on that,
10 what are our options.
11 And so,what you see in the proposed fee
12 rule, you know, that's based on our CBJ. We don't
13 have an appropriation yet, so any changes that we
14 are able to implement, you know, that's not
15 reflected here.
16 Also, you know, with respect to the
17 magnitude of the swing in this business line, you
18 know, you mentioned it yourself: this is a very
19 small business line. You have 8 licensees who are
20 really paying annual fees, so any change, even if
21 it's a couple of FTE, that really has a very big
22 impact when it's, you know, spread out over 8
23 licensees in this fee category versus 94 licensees
24 in the operating reactor category. So,we're aware
25 of that. We are looking for or we did look in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 63
1 2025, you know, could we make any changes during
2 formulation.
3 As far as what licensees can do, I don't
4 think it's necessarily with respect to comments on
5 the fee rule, but, you know, these estimates for
6 170 billings, this is based on what our estimates
7 were in the beginning of the year. If there any
8 changes that you're aware of, of things that are
9 going to come in that we haven't anticipated, you
10 know, we can account for that in the final fee rule
11 of what those 170 estimates are. So,if there are
12 things that are coming in that we hadn't accounted
13 for, that would increase the 170 billings and that
14 would decrease the annual fees also. So, you know,
15 our project managers have been talking to the
16 licensees to get the information, and that will be
17 reflected in the final fee rule, as well.
18 MS. SCHLUETER: One more quick question,
19 I guess, since I have you, and then I'll stop. I
20 think it was slide 27, but the rulemaking item,
21 what rulemakings are covered by that? Because, you
22 know, being very active in the Part40 and Part70
23 world that might impact that community, give me an
24 example of what is budgeted for rulemaking. Which
25 one --
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 64
1 MS. LAV: Yes. The two rules that were
2 budgeted were the Enhanced Weapons rule that was
3 implemented this year and then the CyberSecurity
4 rulemaking. That was limited resources towards
5 that, but that was in there, as well.
6 MS. SCHLUETER: Thank you.
7 MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you. And thank you
8 for your questions, Janet. Thank you, Samantha.
9 Okay. The next hand that I see up is Mike
10 Callahan, so, Mike, you should be able to unmute
11 your microphone. Mike, if you can hear us, you can
12 unmute your microphone and proceed with asking your
13 question. I'm so sorry, Mike. We can't hear you.
14 You may have to touch the microphone icon on your
15 Teams --
16 MR. CALLAHAN: I think I got it.
17 MS. HOLIDAY: Oh, we can hear you.
18 Perfect. Thank you so much. Go ahead with your
19 question.
20 MR. CALLAHAN: Thank you very much. If
21 you could --and thank you, Sophie. Appreciate it.
22 If you can move to slide 15 for a moment, and I'll
23 explain that I'm calling on behalf of the
24 Decommissioning Plant Coalition. And I think
25 Samantha said itbest when she said you're so NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 65
1 limited by the process that is levied upon you that
2 you have limited room to work from year to year.
3 I just want to ask you to take a short
4 look at the bottom line of the annual fee per
5 facility not just from year to year but over the
6 past five years, and that's a 1.75 percent
7 increase. My question is are there any
8 expectations internally at the NRC that you or
9 others have to take a step back every so often and
10 look at such trends and try to develop
11 recommendations for the Commission, for the CFO to
12 take to Commission, for the CFO and the Commission
13 to take to OMB, to try to reverse some of these
14 trends that are really coming down on the ISFSI and
15 the decommissioning plants.
16 Now, I know that everyone expects them
17 to get fee recovery from DOE for their ISFSI fuel
18 storage, et cetera. And the decommissioning plants
19 have decommissioning trust funds that they can draw
20 upon. But as time goes on and five years from now,
21 when you're at a half million dollars and ten years
22 from now when you may be at a million dollars for
23 this class, not all of that, you have to realize
24 that not all of that recovery, it's not 100-percent
25 recovery.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 66
1 So, again, my question is do you all
2 have internal mechanisms available to the process
3 that go beyond the year-to-year mechanics of
4 putting together a fee rule? Do you ever have the
5 charge to step back and take a look at the trends?
6 Thanks.
7 MS. GOLDER: Hi. Thank you so much for
8 the question. This is Jennifer Golder, the acting
9 CFO. We do look at trends each year. We are
10 constrained regarding how we calculate fees based
11 on NEIMA and the rules or the legislation. But we
12 do look at trends, and I do thank you for your
13 comment.
14 MR. CALLAHAN: Okay. Just to follow up,
15 is there anything that causes, is there any
16 mechanism that would cause you to make
17 recommendations for adjustments to NEIMA or
18 anything else over the longer term? And I
19 appreciate your response; I really do. But that's
20 the heart of the question: is there a mechanism for
21 you all to make recommendations up your chain to
22 make adjustments to that limit, to those
23 limitations you're under?
24 MS. GOLDER: Thanks, thanks so much. I
25 don't believe so. I would have to look internally NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 67
1 and discuss that. And thank you for that question.
2 I'm not aware of any internal mechanisms, though.
3 MR. CALLAHAN: Okay. Thank you.
4 Appreciate it.
5 MS. HOLIDAY: Thank you for your
6 question, Mike. Okay. I see, John, you have your
7 hand raised again, so we will go back to you.
8 MR. BUTLER: Thanks. This is just to
9 kind of, for my learning. If you can go to slide
10 31, I think, would be a good example. I'm trying
11 to understand what the real meaning of the, you
12 said the negatives are. Are these changes from the
13 2023 budget? Are these changes from what was
14 planned for the 2024 budget but didn't come to
15 pass? So just for my learning, you know, what is
16 the negative mean?
17 MS. WHITMAN: Yes. So,these are from
18 the 2023 to 2024 budget.
19 MR. BUTLER: So,thedelta between the
20 2023 budget and the 2024 budget?
21 MS. WHITMAN: Yes.
22 MR. BUTLER: In the future, it might be
23 a little bit more informative when we're talking
24 about especially impacts on annual fees to have a
25 little bit more information on the fact-of-life NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 68
1 changes that are resulting in increases in annual
2 fees. That may be a separate slide or a separate
3 portion of the work papers, but having a little bit
4 more information on those fact-of-life changes that
5 you've mentioned that are coming into play to
6 increase the annual fees would be very helpful.
7 MS. WHITMAN: Thank you for that. I'll
8 consider that the next time we put these slides
9 together. I do think it's partially covered, well,
10 it was partially covered in the talking points that
11 Tony gave during his presentation. I think on
12 slide 15 he covered a lot of that.
13 MS. HOLIDAY: Thanks, Jen. And thank
14 you, John. Okay. I actually don't see any more
15 hands raised, so, again, if you have a question or
16 a comment, you can use the raise-hand feature, the
17 hand icon at the top of your screen, or if you
18 joined us on the phone,you can dial star-5 and
19 that will put you in the queue.
20 Oh, John, I see that your hand is raised
21 once again. Let me go back to you. Okay. John,
22 you should be able to unmute your microphone.
23 MR. BUTLER: Hi. This is one of the
24 lower-level questions, but, since nobody was
25 raising a hand, I thought I would go ahead and ask NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 69
1 it. In last year's budget and, to a great degree,
2 this year's budget, there's a lot of funding for IT
3 infrastructure. Can you tell me whether this is
4 something that we can see go away in general in
5 future years, or is this going to be kind of a
6 continuing portion of the budget? Hopefully, the
7 question was clear.
8 MS. GOLDER: Yes. I'm sorry. I lost my
9 screen. This is Jennifer Golder. Well, IT
10 infrastructure is part of our infrastructure. You
11 know, I could only speak to the 2024 budget. The
12 2025 budget has not been released by or has not
13 been enactedor released to the Congress yet.
14 Excuse me. We do expect that soon. And IT
15 infrastructure is a part of our general
16 infrastructure.
17 MR. BUTLER: What I was trying to
18 understand is this something where you're making
19 major changes that, once done, would be in place
20 and the charges would decrease or is this something
21 that's done every year covering changes that are
22 necessary year to year? I know I'm not explaining
23 it very well, but I'm trying to think if this is
24 kind of a one-and-done changes or ongoing changes.
25 MR. BLANEY: John, this is Billy Blaney.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 70
1 There's also a lot of executive orders on cyber
2 that have come out that have IT requirements behind
3 them, so we're going to have to continue meeting
4 those executive orders in order to make sure that
5 we're keeping up with what we're supposed to be
6 doing.
7 MR. BUTLER: I guess what I'm trying to
8 get at, I noticed in some business lines, there was
9 a significant decrease in the IT infrastructure
10 from 2023 to 2024, and, at the same time, there was
11 a large increase in IT infrastructure from 2023 to
12 2024 for other business lines. So,I'm just trying
13 to understand if this is something that, once
14 you're complete in a particular business line or
15 area, that the IT infrastructure costs will go
16 down.
17 MS. GOLDER: John, we'll have to take
18 that question back and look into that more to make
19 sure we understand it.
20 MR. BUTLER: Thank you.
21 MS. GOLDER: Thank you.
22 MS. HOLIDAY: Okay. Are there any other
23 questions? Maybe we can wait just another minute
24 or two before I go over and talk about how you can
25 submit comments. So,if there's anybody else that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 71
1 has a question or comment that you'd like to pose
2 to the NRC staff, please use the raise-hand feature
3 on Microsoft Teams or dial star-5 on your
4 telephone.
5 Okay. Jo, I'm not seeing any hands, so
6 if you'd like to move to the next slide. Since I
7 don't see any more questions, we'll say that this
8 concludes our question-and-answer portion of the
9 meeting. I appreciate everyone's attention and
10 your questions and your comments.
11 So, as previously stated, the deadline
12 for submitting comments on the fiscal year 2024
13 proposed fee rule is March 21st, 2024. There are
14 five methods by which you may submit your comments.
15 However, the NRC highly encourages the first
16 method, which is the electronic comment submission
17 through the federal rulemaking website
18 www.regulations.gov, it's the very first box you
19 see on the slide, using Docket ID NRC-2022-0046.
20 You can also e-mail your comments to
21 rulemaking.comments@nrc.gov, also reference the
22 same docket ID number as part of your email
23 submission.
24 You will receive an automatic e-mail
25 confirmation receipt. If you don't receive that, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 72
1 you can feel free to contact us at 301-415-1677.
2 You can also fax your comments addressed to the
3 Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
4 using the same docket ID number, and the fax number
5 is 301-415-1101.
6 Next slide, please. The fourth method
7 is that you can mail your comments in addressed to
8 the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
9 at the address listed on the slide, or you can come
10 hand-deliver your comments to us at our NRC
11 Headquarters location located at 11555 Rockville
12 Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
13 If you need any further information,
14 please contact Anthony, or Tony, Rossi via e-mail
15 at Anthony, A-N-T-H-O-N-Y, dot Rossi, R-O-S-S-I, at
16 NRC.gov or by telephone at 301-415-7341.
17 Lastly, I would appreciate it if you
18 took the time to fill out our public meeting
19 feedback form. You can find this link in the
20 public meeting schedule page located for this
21 particular meeting. Your opinion on how this
22 meeting went will help us improve upon future
23 meetings, so, please, if you would, take a moment
24 to let us know what you think.
25 Again, thank you so much for your time NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 73
1 and your attention and engagement during this
2 meeting. Without further ado, I would like to turn
3 the meeting back over to Jennifer Golder for our
4 closing remarks.
5 Jennifer.
6 MS. GOLDER: So,thank you, Sophie, for
7 facilitating the meeting. Thank you to all the
8 presenters that are here in the room with me today.
9 I greatly appreciate your time and efforts in
10 making this happen. And thank you to all of our
11 stakeholders and all of the people who have
12 participated and asked us questions. We greatly
13 appreciate it. And please submit your questions
14 formally and have a great day. Thank you.
15 Oh, yes, thank you. Sophie, did I miss
16 a slide? Did you want me to mention the acronyms?
17 MS. HOLIDAY: No, it's not necessary. I
18 covered that in the beginning. But, again, as
19 Jennifer just alluded to, the very last slide
20 contains all of our acronyms. We are an agency of
21 acronyms, so feel free to reference that slide if
22 you'd like some clarification.
23 And with that, I will end the meeting
24 for everyone. Thank you so much.
25 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com 74
1 went off the record at 11:44 a.m.)
2
3
4
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14TH ST., N.W., STE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com