NRC Doubles Civil Penalty Amounts
Blog Energy Industry Watch Blog

In an interim final rule, 81 Fed. Reg. 43020 (July 1, 2016), the NRC announced that it is more than doubling the maximum daily civil penalty—from $140,000 to $280,469 per day per violation. The rule is effective August 1, 2016. The Atomic Energy Act sets civil penalties for violations of the Act at $100,000 per day per violation. The NRC has adjusted that amount four times under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (FCPIAA). More recently, the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 included a new formula for increasing civil penalty amounts. The 2015 Act capped the increase at 150% of the current civil penalty. However, because the formula amount is approximately double the current civil penalty, the cap did not come into play.

The NRC explained that, as permitted by the 2015 Act, the NRC may apply these increased civil penalty amounts to any penalties assessed after the effective date of the interim final rule, regardless of whether the underlying violation occurred before that date.

The NRC also indicated that conforming changes to the NRC Enforcement Policy will be published before August 1, 2016. While the total amount of civil penalties issues to reactor licensees has declined significantly since the initiation of the Reactor Oversight Process—from nearly $6 million in 2005 to only $105,000 in 2015—the amount of civil penalties issued to other types of licensees has not. A substantial increase in the base civil penalty could have a substantial adverse impact on non-reactor licensees, as indicated by the table below. In developing the revisions to the Enforcement Policy, the NRC should consider whether it is necessary to double the base civil penalty for all types of licensees in order to achieve the desired deterrent effect.