• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Podcast
  • Archives
  • Links

Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Budget impasse may affect reactor application process for years to come

December 16, 2006 By Rod Adams

I am appalled that it is now December and Congress has yet to pass a budget for the year. I am even more worried on many levels by the effect of that failure to complete a constitutionally assigned duty now that I have read Stalled funding could hurt new nuke plants on Earthtimes.org.

Even though the NRC is almost completely funded by user fees, that funding is indirect – the fees go directly to the US Treasury and the Congress has to appropriate the correct amount of funds out of the Treasury to pay the costs of operating the regulator.

Obviously, the cost of doing business for the NRC is increasing – the commission is hiring and training people at a rapid pace in order to prepare for the onslaught of reactor license applications already scheduled to begin arriving in 2007. However, when Congress fails to pass a budget, all agencies obtain their funding via what we bureaucrats call a “continuing resolution authority” (CRA). The assumption made in that case is that the budget is aligned just like it was last year, despite any changes in mission.

The effect on the NRC is essentially a 12% cut in their expected spending authority, which definitely will have an effect on their ability to prepare for the bow wave of new license applications and may hurt their timely response ability for years to come.

Related Posts

  • Portion of NRC budget covered by licensee fees (90%) must be exempt from sequestration

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About Rod Adams

Managing member at Nucleation Capital, LP.
Atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. Financial, strategic, and political analyst. Former submarine Engineer Officer. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast. Resume available here.

Please subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed.

Primary Sidebar

Search Atomic Insights

The Atomic Show

Atomic Insights

Follow Atomic Insights

Recent Posts

Kenneth Pitzer blamed AEC advisors for slow power reactor development

Why did the US Atomic Energy Commission kill Daniels Pile in 1947?

How did an oil shale investor hamstring his atomic energy competition? (Ancient but impactful smoking gun)

Improved atomic energy offers a pathway that Princeton’s Net Zero America failed to acknowledge

Adams Engines™: Design Concepts

  • Home
  • About Atomic Insights
  • Atomic Show
  • Contact
  • Links

Search Atomic Insights

Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Atomic Insights

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy