NRC regulation of DOE facilties

[Jacques.Read@eh.doe.gov]

Since DOE no longer operates any reactors, NRC has no licensing regulations that
would apply.  They are into their nth year of proposing a new 10 CFR 70 to apply
to fuel reprocessing plants.  A good reason for not being eager to regulate DOE
is that NRC is largely funded by charging by the staff-hour, but are unable to
do that to a federal agency.  They never solved the problem of whether it would
be DOE or its contractor that needed the license, either.  On top of that, DOE
has lost about 30% of its federal employees due to the downsizing of the last
administrations "National Performance Review," and would be hard-put to lose
many more.  The national labs were at first all gung-ho for NRC oversight ---
until they found out that NRC charges $120/hour.



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