NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

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

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

 

No. 06-073 May 30, 2006

NRC PUBLISHES LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES 

FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations to reflect the licensing,

inspection and annual fees it will charge applicants and licensees for fiscal year (FY) 2006.

The agency is required by Congress to recover for the Treasury 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; this fee is calculated using an hourly rate. 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 NRC regulations 10 CFR

Part 170 (fees for licensing and inspection services) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees). These fees are

paid to the U.S. Treasury and go into the general fund.

By law, the NRC must recover 90 percent of its budget for FY 2006 (Oct. 1, 2005 - Sept. 30,

2006) from fees, less the amount appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level waste

activities and appropriated from general funds for waste-incidental-to-reprocessing activities. The total

amount to be recovered for FY 2006 is approximately $624 million, about $83 million more than in FY

2005.

The FY 2006 fees rule was published today in the Federal Register and will become effective

July 31. The final rule sets the hourly rates for Part 170 fees at $217 for the Nuclear Reactor Safety

Program and $214 for the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program. The FY 2005 rates are $205

for the reactor program and $197 for the materials program. The increases to the hourly rates are due

primarily to the government-wide pay raise and the more accurate allocation of agency overhead to

these programs and fee-exempt activities.

The NRC will begin charging federal agencies Part 170 fees under its new authority from the

Energy Policy Act of 2005, with the exception of federally owned test and research reactors that meet

certain criteria.

Annual fees will increase for nearly all licensees, primarily because of the approximately $83

million increase in the agency’s recoverable budget for FY 2006 as the NRC prepares for an anticipated

increase in new reactor licensing reviews.
The FY 2006 annual fees include the following:

 

Class/category of licenses FY 2006 Annual fee

Operating Power Reactors (including Spent Fuel 

 Storage/Reactor Decommissioning annual fee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,704,000

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $173,000

Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors) ................................ $80,100

High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,420,000

Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,596,000

UF6 Conversion Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,046,000

Rare Earth Mills ........................................................... $95,900

Typical Materials Users:

 Radiographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15,400

 Well Loggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,800

 Gauge Users (Category 3P) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,900

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