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. 07-019 February 2, 2007

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) 2007.

The agency is required by Congress to recover for the U.S. Treasury most 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 reflecting

time spent by staff performing the service. The other is an annual fee paid by 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 through fees 90 percent of its budget for FY 2007 (Oct. 1, 2006

- Sept. 30, 2007), less the amounts appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level waste

activities and from general funds for waste-incidental-to-reprocessing and generic homeland security

activities. The total amount to be recovered in FY 2007 is approximately $664 million, about $40

million more than in FY 2006.

The FY 2007 proposed fee rule, published today in the Federal Register, includes fees based

upon the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act of 2007, which was approved by the

House of Representatives. A final appropriations bill has not been enacted. If a different version of the

NRC budget is enacted, the fees in the NRC’s final rule will differ from the fees included in the

proposed rule. The NRC is proceeding with the proposed rule even without a final appropriation

because the fees must be collected by Sept. 30, 2007.

The NRC is proposing to establish one hourly rate of $256 in Part 170 for activities in both the

Nuclear Reactor Safety Program and the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program. This represents

an increase from FY 2006 hourly rates of $217 for the reactor program and $214 for the materials

program. The increase reflects a revised estimate of staff hours spent on specific activities, such as

licensing actions, inspections and regulatory development.
The proposed FY 2007 annual fees include the following:

 

Class/category of licenses FY 2007 Annual fee

Operating Power Reactors (including Spent Fuel 

 Storage/Reactor Decommissioning annual fee) ................................. $4,088,000

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning ..................................... $150,000

Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors) .................................. $92,300

High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility .......................................... $4,451,000

Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility ........................................... $1,345,000

UF6 Conversion Facility ....................................................... $881,000

Rare Earth Mills .............................................................. $89,300

Typical Materials Users:

 Radiographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14,100

 Well Loggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,300

 Gauge Users (Category 3P) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,700

Written comments on the proposed fee changes should be submitted by March 5. They should

be addressed to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001,

ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Comments may also be submitted by e-mail to

SECY@nrc.gov , faxed to (301) 415-1011, or submitted online via the NRC’s rulemaking Web site at

http://ruleforum.llnl.gov .

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