COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Biden budget cuts millions from communities near SRS, Hanford
Aiken Standard | 6/16/2021
The Biden administration’s latest spending blueprint eliminates millions of dollars typically paid to governments and communities surrounding Department of Energy nuclear reservations, proposed cuts that have vexed industry groups and Aiken-area leaders alike.
The fiscal year 2022 budget request for the Department of Energy’s cleanup office, Environmental Management, scraps $5.7 million and $3.5 million, respectively, in what are known as payments in lieu of taxes for the Savannah River Site south of Aiken and the Hanford site in Washington.
Payment-in-lieu-of-tax money – PILT, for short — in the Palmetto State is distributed to Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell counties, the latter receiving the lion’s share. The funds for years have supported vital government functions: schools, roads and emergency services.
A lack of PILT money would squeeze programs and projects in the counties occupied by the 310-square-mile Savannah River Site. It would also, officials suggested, not be a good look.
“To some degree, I don’t think it’s a good public relations move on the part of the budget writers,” Aiken County Council Chairman Gary Bunker said Monday. Barnwell County Council member Ben Kinlaw was more blunt: “PILT is sort of like the sacred cow.”
The federal budget proposal does not explain why PILT payments to the Savannah River and Hanford communities are nixed. Congress could add them back.
An Energy Department spokesperson on Monday night said the Biden administration is “deeply committed to working with the Savannah River community and other communities who have been adversely effected by the legacy of DOE weapons and research missions.” The spokesperson said the department “will work with appropriate congressional and agency staff to support these communities moving forward.”
The proposed slashes do not “track with recent commitments we have heard from new DOE leadership about supporting communities,” Energy Communities Alliance Chairman Ron Woody wrote in a June 10 letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. They came as a bit of a shock, too, Woody added, “as there was no DOE headquarters briefing on the budget and no direct outreach to the community leadership on the
issues.”
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
NRC Amends Licensing, Inspection, and Annual Fees for FY 2021
NRC | 6/16/2021
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations for the licensing, inspection, special projects, and annual fees it will charge applicants and licensees for FY 2021.
The FY 2021 final fee rule, published today in the Federal Register, includes fees required by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act to recover, to the maximum extent practicable, approximately 100 percent of the agency’s total budget authority in FY 2021, less the budget authority for certain excluded activities. NEIMA also established a new cap for the annual fees charged to operating
reactor licensees and required three sets of actions related to NRC invoices for service fees. A proposed rule was published for public comment on Feb. 22.
The final fee rule reflects a total budget authority of $844.4 million, a decrease of $11.2 million from FY 2020. After accounting for exclusions from the fee-recovery requirement and net billing adjustments, the NRC must recover approximately $708 million in fees in FY 2021. Of this amount, approximately $190.6 million will be recovered under Part 170 fees for service and $517.4 million will be
recovered through Part 171 annual fees.
The FY 2021 final fee rule also includes a change in the hourly rate, affecting licensees and applicants. The NRC has increased the hourly rate from $279 to $288 for FY 2021 and has adjusted license application fees accordingly.
The NRC estimates that the FY 2021 annual fees will be paid by the 93 licensees of operating commercial power reactors, four non-power production or utilization facilities, 122 spent nuclear fuel storage and decommissioning reactor facilities, eight fuel cycle facilities, one uranium recovery facility, and approximately 2,500 nuclear materials licensees.
URANIUM
Biden administration eyes step toward Trump-era proposal for uranium reserve
The Hill | 6/15/2021
The Biden administration will take a step toward establishing a reserve for uranium, a proposal pushed by the prior Trump administration that could boost mining of the mineral as well as nuclear energy potential.
Testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said her department would take a step this month toward establishing the reserve.
“We’re about to issue a request for information [RFI] regarding establishing a reserve,” Granholm said. “We are, I think this month, issuing an RFI on that.”
Late last year, Congress provided money to establish the strategic reserve, which would buy U.S.-mined uranium from domestic producers, as one of many provisions in a major government funding bill.
Asked why the administration’s budget request for next year didn’t include funding for the reserve, Granholm cited the current funding for the project.
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