NRC Is Supposed To Be Funded By Industry Fees...Why Are They Asking Congress For More Money?

Someone correct me here if I am wrong, but isn't the NRC supposed to be funded by the fees and fines paid to said agency by the industry that they are supposed to oversee? If they are experiencing a BUDGET CRUNCH, shouldn't they be raising the fees and penalties of the nuclear industry, instead of asking Congress for $100 MILLION dollars. I read another article where Entergy profits are up, yet another that said the company has received over $280 Million in Community Block Grants to recover almost their full losses from Hurricane Katrina. The DOE budget for GNEP related costs in 2007 is $250 Million. Seems to me, that tax payers have subsidized the Nuclear Industry for far too long, and that the NRC needs to meet with the industry to discuss this financial shortfall that will be created when all THESE NEW LICENSE APPLICATIONS start flowing in. Call or write your Senators and Congressmen/women, and tell them you OPPOSE funding additional staff at the NRC. Inform the Congress that any NRC budget increases need to come from their licensees, not the American Taxpayer.

GAO Report: NRC Needs Increased Funding to Handle Heavier Workload

From the AP:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ability to hire enough workers to manage the expected onslaught of new nuclear reactor applications will be crippled without increased funding, a report by the investigative arm of Congress says.

NRC Chairman Dale Klein said he, too, was concerned about the agency's ability to handle the license requests unless it receives more money from Congress. Without a new budget, the agency will be $95 million, or 12 percent, short.

"It will slow (the licensing) down," he said in an interview.

A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday examined his agency's workforce challenges.

"The funding and full-time equivalent restrictions ... would have a crippling impact on our ability to manage human capital," Klein wrote in a response included in the GAO report released Wednesday.