NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone 301/415-820

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

 Web Site: www.nrc.gov

No. 03-077 June 10, 2003

 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 applicants and licensees for fiscal year (FY) 2003.

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 $526.3 million or 94 percent of its budget for FY 2003

(October 1, 2002 - September 30, 2003) less the $24.7 million appropriated from the Nuclear

Waste Fund for high-level waste activities. The amount to be recovered in FY 2003 includes

$29.3 million appropriated for NRC’s activities related to homeland security. Homeland security

costs were not included in the agency’s fee base for FY 2002, and were appropriated from the

Treasury’s General Fund. The total amount to be recovered is about $47 million more than last

year. 

The hourly rates are $156 for reactor program activities and $158 for nuclear material

program activities. There is a $6 increase over FY 2002 in the hourly labor rate for NRC

services performed in the nuclear materials program only. A major reason for this increase is the

higher salary and benefits resulting from the Government-wide pay raise. While salary and

benefits also increase for the reactor program, the increase is offset by a reduction in the average

overhead. 

The 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 magnitude

of the budget to be recovered through fees. Re-baselined annual fees for this year have resulted

in increases compared to FY 2002 fees for four classes of licensees (operating power reactors,
spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning, fuel facilities, and rare earth facilities), and

decreased annual fees for two classes (non-power reactors and uranium recovery).

 Finally, in two classes, material users and transportation, some categories (or subclasses) of licensees have increased annual fees while others have decreased annual fees. A

proposed regulation on this subject was published in The Federal Register for public comment

on April 3. The comments were considered and addressed in the final rule. 

The FY 2003 annual fees include the following for representative classes/categories of

licensees:

Class/Category of Licensees FY 2003 Annual Fee

Operating Power Reactors $3,251,000

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor

 Decommissioning $319,000 

Non-Power Reactors $63,300

High-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility $5,836,000

Low-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility $1,957,000

Uranium Recovery (Conventional Mills) $63,700

Transportation:

 Users/Fabricators $76,200

 Users Only $7,100

Material Users:

 Radiographers $12,200

 Broad Scope Medical $24,700

 Distribution of Radiopharmaceuticals $4,700

 Gauge Users $1,900

A copy of the final rule will be published in The Federal Register in the near future.

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