Press Release 2001 - 070 - NRC Ame.. .g, Inspection and Annual Fees Rule

ooo "'°%NR 44, C NEWS 

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

, 2 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opaanrc.gov 

*W*. * Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA

No. 01-070 June 8, 2001 

NRC AMENDS LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES RULE 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations for the licensing, inspections and 

annual fees it charges to licensees for fiscal year (FY) 2001. 

The agency is statutorily required to collect about 98 percent (2 percent less than last year) of its budget 

this year through two types of fees. One is for NRC services such as licensing and inspection activities. 

The other is an annual fee paid by all licensees, which recovers generic regulatory expenses and other 

costs not recovered from fees for specific services. These fees are set out in Commission regulations 10 

CFR Part 170 (licensing and inspection fees) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees). 

The NRC must recover $453.3 million for FY 2001 (October 1, 2000 - September 30, 2001). This does 

not include $21.6 million appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level waste activities. 

Neither does it include $3.2 million appropriated for NRC's selected regulatory reviews and assistance 

provided to federal agencies and states. Funding for these activities is excluded from license fee 

revenues by law. The total amount to be recovered is about $6.3 million more than last year. 

The annual fees have been determined under the re-baseline method, which establishes new baseline 

fees. The Commission decided to re-baseline annual fees this year after considering factors such as the 

amount of the budget allocated to various classes of licensees and complex issues related to fairness and 

stability of the fees. Re-baselined annual fees result in reduced annual fees for a majority of licensees, 

including power reactors, uranium recovery licensees, radiography and broad-scope medical licensees. 

Annual fees will increase for other categories of licensees, such as fuel-fabrication facilities and 

distributors of radio-pharmaceuticals. 

There is also a $6 increase over FY 2000 in the hourly labor rate for NRC services performed in the 

reactor program, and a $1 increase for NRC services performed in the nuclear materials program. The 

hourly rates are $150 for the reactor program activities and $144 for the nuclear materials program 

activities. 

In accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act that requires agencies to consider the impacts of rule 

changes on small businesses, the NRC reviewed its fees established in FY 2000 for such businesses. It 

has concluded that a change to the reduced annual fees for small entities is not warranted for this fiscal 

year. 

The final FY 2001 annual fees for some licensees are as follows:

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Press Release 2001 - 070 - NRC Ame...g, Inspection and Annual Fees Rule

Categories of Licensees 

Operating Power Reactors 

(including spent fuel storage/reactor 

decommissioning annual fee) 

High-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility 

Low-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility 

Uranium Recovery (Conventional Mills) 

Radiographers 

Broad Scope Medical 

Distribution of Radiopharmaceuticals

FY 2000 Annual Fee 

$2,815,000 

3,327,000 

1,116,000 

132,000 

14,900 

28,100 

3,800

FY 2001 Annual Fee 

$2,753,000 

3,545,000 

1,146,000 

94,300 

12,500 

24,200 

3,900

Other changes include a fee of $450 to be assessed for each annual registration of generally licensed 

devices, consistent with the recent revisions to the Commission's regulations in 10 CFR Parts 30, 31 and 

32 establishing the registration program. Assessment of the registration fee will begin after the generally 

Ti'-ensed devices currently in use are first registered with the agency. 

As a streamlining measure, the NRC is eliminating fees now assessed to Agreement State licensees for 

revisions they file related to the types and locations of licensed activities they conduct in areas under 

NRC jurisdiction based on the agency's reciprocity provisions. The fees assessed for the initial 

applications for reciprocity filed by these Agreement State licensees will increase from $1,200 to $1,400 

to recover the costs of processing the revisions. 

The final rule will be published with additional details in an upcoming edition of The Federal Register.

[ NRC Home Page I News and Information I E-mail ]

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