Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposes more than $929M Congressional budget for 2023

Published on March 30, 2022 by Chris Galford

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this week proposed to Congress an increased budget of $929.2 million in its fiscal year 2023 budget.

Specific requests therein would include:

1. $490.7 million for nuclear reactor safety efforts split with $402.1 million for operating reactors and the remaining $88.6 million for new reactors;
2. $135.5 million for nuclear materials and waste safety;
3. $23.8 million for the ongoing development of a regulatory infrastructure to support advanced nuclear reactor technologies;
4. $17.8 million for the Office of Inspector General and the services of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board; and
5. Essentially unchanged funding from the FY2022 budget in support of 2,880 full-time equivalent employees.

Overall, this would represent a $41.5 million increase over the budget for 2022. The NRC currently expects to recover $792.2 million of its budget in license fees. This would result in a net appropriations request of $137 million, an increase of $6 million over the agency’s FY2022 enacted budget.