NRC ISSUES FINAL LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES 

RULE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 

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

inspection and annual fees it will charge its licensees and applicants in fiscal year (FY) 2008. 

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; this fee is calculated using the current hourly rate multiplied 

by the 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 licensespecific services) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees). These fees are paid to the NRC and 

transferred to U.S. Treasury’s general fund. 

By law, the NRC must recover through fees 90 percent of its budget authority for FY 

2008 (Oct. 1, 2007 - Sept. 30, 2008), 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. Fees are to be collected by Sept. 30. The total amount 

to be recovered in FY 2008 is approximately $779.1 million, about $109.8 million more than in 

FY 2007. After accounting for carryover and billing adjustments, the net amount to be billed as 

fees for FY2008 is approximately $760.7 million. 

The FY 2008 fee rule, published today in the Federal Register, includes fees based upon 

the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008. The NRC’s hourly rate (for both Nuclear Reactor 

Safety program and the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program) is $238 for Part 170 

activities. This represents about an 8% decrease from FY 2007 of $258 per hour. The decrease is 

primarily due to efficiencies created in estimates of direct staff hours worked annually per direct 

full time equivalent that is used in the hourly rate calculation. 

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 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 08-112 June 6, 2008
The final FY 2008 annual fees include the following: 

Class/category of licenses FY 2008 Annual Fee 

Operating Power Reactors (including Spent Fuel Storage/ 

Reactor Decommissioning annual fee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . ....$4,167,000 

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...$135,000 

Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $76,500 

High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,007,000 

Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $899,000 

UF6 Conversion Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $589,000 

Rare Earth Mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0 

(No Rare Earth licensee in FY 2008) 

Typical Materials Users: 

Radiographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . $11,100 

Well Loggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,400 

Gauge Users (Category 3P). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,100 

NRC estimates that the FY 2008 annual fees will be paid by 104 nuclear power plant 

licensees, 4 non-power reactors, 19 spent fuel storage/reactor-in-decommissioning facilities, 11 

fuel cycle facilities, 7 uranium recovery facilities and approximately 4,400 material licensees. 

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