DEEP seeks staff to take on NRC agreement-state duties; says fees will exceed costs

HARTFORD — The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) told the Appropriations subcommittee it is seeking three new positions and modest operating funds to assume licensing, inspection and enforcement responsibilities for certain radioactive materials currently regulated directly by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said Governor Lamont requested delegation of limited NRC authority to the state and that DEEP expects licensing fees from regulated Connecticut entities to exceed the additional staffing costs. "When the agreement with the NRC becomes effective...we would expect approximately 1,800,000.0 in license fees from regulated entities in Connecticut will be directed to the general fund," she said, adding that DEEP had estimated the staffing need at about 2.8 full-time equivalents to support the program.

Why it matters: If approved by the NRC and by state procedures, the delegation would move day-to-day licensing and inspection for academic, medical and industrial users of some radioactive materials from the federal agency to DEEP. DEEP told lawmakers the shift would increase local responsiveness to regulated users and produce net revenue for the state general fund after paying DEEP's supervisory costs.

Most important details

- Scope: DEEP described roughly 20 licensees for radioactive materials, about 500 industrial x-ray users, and roughly 2,500 medical x-ray/therapeutic users statewide that participate in related regulatory regimes. The NRCdelegation would cover material licenses, inspections and oversight for a subset of these uses.

- Staffing and finance: DEEP said it would add about three positions (the department described a 2.8-FTE staffing analysis) and requested $278,315 and three positions in the governors budget to stand up the program. DEEP estimated fees collected under the state fee schedule would total roughly $1.7 million annually and that the added staffing and operating cost would be far lower.

- Timing: Commissioner Dykes said the state requested an October 1 start date and that the agreement-state transition is a multi-step NRC approval process. The department said it had submitted a staffing-and-activity analysis to NRC as part of the application.

Lawmakersquestions

Committee members asked where the fees would be directed (the commissioner said they would go to the general fund per statute) and whether the program had been benchmarked against other agreement states. DEEP said it had used NRC activity data and compared per-license staffing ratios in other agreement states to derive the staffing need.

Ending: Lawmakers asked for a follow-up breakdown of projected license-fee revenues and the department said it would provide a map of affected licensees and a detailed staffing-and-revenue analysis at the working group.