NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov 

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

No. 04-016 February 3, 2004

REVISED TO CORRECT DOLLAR AMOUNTS

 NRC PROPOSES TO AMEND LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES RULE

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to amend its regulations for the licensing,

inspection and annual fees it charges applicants and licensees for fiscal year (FY) 2004.

The agency is required to collect nearly all of its annual appropriated budget through two types

of fees. One is for specific NRC services, such as licensing and inspection activities, that apply to a

specific license. The other is an annual fee paid by all licensees, which recovers generic regulatory

expenses and other costs not recovered through fees for specific services. These fees are contained in

Commission regulations 10 CFR Part 170 (fees for licensing and inspection services) and 10 CFR Part

171 (annual fees). 

By law, the NRC must recover $545.6 million, which represents 92 percent of its budget for

FY 2004 (October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2004) less the $33.1 million appropriated from the Nuclear

Waste Fund for high-level waste activities. The amount to be recovered in FY 2004 includes $51.1

million appropriated for NRC’s activities related to homeland security. The total amount to be

recovered is about $19.3 million more than last year. 

The proposed annual fees have been determined under the “re-baselining” method. The

Commission decided to re-baseline annual fees this year based on the changes in the total budget and

the magnitude of the budget allocated to certain classes of licensees. Re-baselined annual fees would

result in increased annual fees compared to FY 2003 fees for three classes of licensees (power reactors,

rare earth mills and transportation) and decreased annual fees for three classes (spent fuel

storage/reactor decommissioning, non-power reactors, and fuel facilities).

 Finally, in two classes, material users and uranium recovery, most categories (or sub-classes)

of licensees would have decreased annual fees while others would have increased annual fees. 
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The proposed FY 2004 annual fees include the following representative classes/categories of

licensees:

Class/Category of Licensees Proposed FY 2004 Annual Fee

Power Reactors $3,342,000 

(Including spent fuel storage/reactor

decommissioning annual fee) 

Rare Earth Mills $187,900 

Transportation-Approvals $91,400

(Users and Fabricators)

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning $207,000

Non-Power Reactors $62,600

High-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility $5,342,000 

Low-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility $1,791,000 

Uranium Recovery (Conventional Mills) $14,600

Radiographers $12,000 

Broad Scope Medical $25,100

Distribution of Radiopharmaceuticals $4,500

Gauge Users $1,900

Written comments on the proposed amendments to 10 CFR Parts 170 and 171 of the

Commission’s regulations should be received within 30 days after the February 2 publication in the

Federal Register. They should be addressed to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

Washington, D.C., 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications staff. Comments also may

be faxed to 301-415-1101, or submitted via the NRC’s electronic rulemaking Web site, at

http://ruleforum.llnl.gov . This site provides the ability to upload comments as files (in any format), if

a user’s browser supports that function. 

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