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S~NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov 

Web Site: www.nrc.eov 

No. 02-074 June 17, 2002 

NRC AMENDS LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES RULE 

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

and annual fees it charges to applicants and licensees for fiscal year 2002. 

The agency is statutorily required to collect about 96 percent (two percent less than last year) of 

its operating budget through two types of fees. One type 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 through fees for services. These fees are set out in Commission 

regulations 10 CFR Part 170 (licensing and inspection services) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees), 

respectively. 

The NRC must recover $479.5 million for fiscal year 2002 (October 1, 2001 - September 30, 

2002). This does not include $23.7 million appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level 

waste activities, or $36 million appropriated from the General Fund for NRC homeland security 

activities. Funding for these activities is excluded from license fee revenues by law. The total amount 

to be recovered is about $26.2 million more than last year. 

There is a $6 increase over FY 2001 in the hourly labor rate for NRC services performed in the 

reactor program, and an $8 increase for NRC services performed in the nuclear material program. The 

hourly rates are $156 for the reactor program activities and $152 for the nuclear materials program 

activities. 

The annual fees for FY 2002 have been determined under the "re-baseline" method, which 

establishes new baseline fees. Based on the change in the magnitude of the budget to be recovered 

through fees, the Commission has determined that it is appropriate to "re-baseline" the annual fees. 

Re-baselining fees results in increased annual fees for most classes of licenses, except for non-power 

reactors, spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning, and uranium recovery classes.

The final annual fees also reflect the Commission's decision to assess the budgeted costs for this

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fiscal year for the contested hearing related to the mixed oxide fuel fabrication license application to all 

classes of licensees based on their respective percentages of the NRC's budget. In the proposed rule, 

these costs were to be recovered from the fuel facility class of licensees only. The final FY 2002 

annual fees reflect this change. 

The final FY 2002 annual fees for some licensees are as follows:

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 2001 Annual Fee 

$2,753,000 

$3,545,000 

$1,146,000 

94,300 

12,500 

24,200 

3,900

FY 2002 Annual Fee 

$2,849,000 

$3,834,000 

$1,286,000 

77,900 

13,700 

26,100 

4,500

Other changes include revising the fee waiver criteria to clarify the fee exemption provisions for 

topical reports and certain other documents submitted to the NRC for review and approval. In addition, 

the Part 171 annual fee exemption for reactors is being revised to clarify that the exemption applies 

only to reactors licensed to operate. 

The NRC is also revising Part 171 to authorize the assessment of annual fees to holders of 

combined licenses issued under Part 52, to clarify that the annual fees will be assessed for each license, 

and not for each unit, as well as to establish when assessment of these annual fees will begin. 

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

Register.

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