August 17, 2016 

The Honorable Thad Cochran 

Chairman, Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Mr. Chairman: 

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am submitting the third 

quarterly report related to the NRC’s progress on certain licensing actions and right-sizing 

commitments as directed in the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2016. 

To monitor the NRC’s progress against its licensing goals and right-sizing commitments, 

the Joint Explanatory Statement directed the Commission to report: 1) “the on-board strength of 

full-time equivalent [(FTE)] employees, including any identified areas of critical skill shortages 

and targeted hiring strategies against these shortage areas”; 2) “actions taken to right-size the 

NRC in accordance with the recommendations of the Project Aim report, to include rebaselining 

assumptions and projection of FTEs and required budget authority”; 3) “progress to eliminate 

the backlog of pending licensing actions in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation by 2017”; 

and 4) “progress to complete the licensing reviews of pending reactor license renewal 

applications (power and research reactors), combined license applications, early site permit 

applications, design certification applications, and uranium recovery applications (initial and 

renewal) against currently projected schedules.” 

The agency has been carefully monitoring year-end FTE projections and expects to 

utilize approximately 3,480 FTE by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2016. The agency continues to 

implement strategies to reduce the year-end FTE utilization for FY 2016 and through voluntary 

early retirement authority and voluntary separation incentive pay programs the NRC anticipates 

additional reductions in our staffing levels. As a result, the NRC anticipates beginning FY 2017 

with approximately 3,350 employees. 

The agency continues to make progress in implementing the re-baselining effort that will 

result in the NRC needing $30.2 million less than the FY 2017 President’s Budget to 

accommodate our anticipated workload. To date, we have completed the actions necessary to 

generate the savings associated with 66 of the 141 items to be shed, deferred, or performed 

with fewer resources in FY 2017 and are on schedule to complete the remaining items before 

the start of the fiscal year. An additional nine items will be completed before the start of FY 

2018. In June, the staff provided the Commission recommendations for further efficiencies in 

corporate support services that could be realized in FY 2018 and FY 2019. As reference 

material for your awareness, enclosed is a recent Project Aim Implementation Status Update, 

dated August 8, 2016 (Enclosure 1). 
- 2 - 

The staff continues to make progress in reducing the backlog of licensing actions, 

completing 95% within one year or less during the first three quarters of FY 2016. The staff’s 

progress in completing other licensing actions is reflected in the enclosed table (Enclosure 2). 

Please feel free to contact me or Eugene Dacus, Director of the Office of Congressional 

Affairs, at (301) 415-1776 if you have questions or need more information. 

 Sincerely, 

 /RA/

 Stephen G. Burns 

Enclosures: 

1. Implementation Status 

Update – August 2016 

2. Progress on Licensing 

Applications – Quarters 1, 2, and 3 

cc: Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
Identical letter sent to: 

The Honorable Thad Cochran 

Chairman, Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

cc: Senator Barbara A. Mikulski 

The Honorable Harold Rogers 

Chairman, Committee on Appropriations 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, DC 20515 

cc: Representative Nita M. Lowey