Resource Estimator for Operating Reactor Licensing

Purpose of the Resource Estimator

The Operating Reactor Licensing Resource Estimator is a data-driven project through which our internal and external stakeholders may visualize the amount of NRC staff resources and time likely needed to complete various types of licensing actions, including amendments, exceptions, program change reviews, relief requests, license transfers, power uprates and COVID-19-related licensing actions.

Below is an example visualization showing the median ranges for general types of operating reactor licensing actions. For amendments, exemptions, relief requests, and COVID-19-related licensing actions, you can select those types and navigate to more detailed visualizations.

Resource Estimate Visualizations

We created the following visualizations using the Estimator listed by type of licensing action.

• License Amendment Requests
• Resource Estimates for License Amendment Requests to Adopt Approved Travelers 
• Relief Requests
• Exemption Requests
• COVID-19-Related Licensing Actions
• Key Influencing Factors on Review Resources and Schedule
• Vignette for Key Influencing Factors on Review Resources and Schedule

See also

• Data Sheet of Resource and Schedule Estimates for Operating Reactors, This sheet includes the sample size for each category.
• Traditional List of Operating Reactor Fee Estimates. This periodically updated file contains resource estimates for the entire operating reactor business line, including oversight, research and test reactors, etc.  This file also includes resource estimates for those reviews that may require the use of contractors.

How We Calculated the Estimates

The resource and schedule estimates are based on a large dataset (about 5,000 rows of data) of completed licensing actions from 2018 – 2021 for calculating median ranges (+/- 25% from median) of staff hours and review timelines for almost any type of operating reactor licensing action, with additional keyword search functionality. The data for COVID-19-related licensing actions was excluded from all queries except specifically for the table titled, “COVID-19-Related Licensing Actions,” to ensure that these short-turn reviews did not skew the median values for “normal” licensing actions.

These estimates have informed staff resource estimates as part of the acceptance review process, the fee estimate process in support of the annual fee rule, and the operating reactor budget formulation process.  Using this data-driven approach, we can identify trends and outliers in licensing action resources and review schedules to help us better engage with our internal and external stakeholders.