NRC ISSUES FINAL LICENSING, INSPECTION AND 

ANNUAL FEES RULE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010 

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

inspection and annual fees it will charge its applicants and licensees for fiscal year (FY) 2010. 

 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; the other is an annual fee for generic 

regulatory expenses and other costs not recovered through fees for specific services. These fees 

are contained in NRC regulations in Title 10 (Energy) of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 

CFR) Part 170 (fees for license-specific services) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees). These fees, 

collected by the NRC and provided to the U.S. Treasury, go into the general fund. 

 By law, the NRC must recover, through fees to applicants and licensees, 90 percent of its 

budget authority for FY 2010 (Oct. 1, 2009 - Sept. 30, 2010), less the amounts appropriated from 

the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level radioactive waste activities and from general funds for 

waste-incidental-to-reprocessing and generic homeland security activities. The total amount of 

fees to be recovered by Sept. 30 is approximately $912.2 million, about 5 percent ($41.5 million) 

more than in FY 2009. 

The FY 2010 fee rule, published today in the Federal Register, includes fees based on the 

Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 2010 (Pub. L. 111-85), 

signed by the President on October 28, 2009. Approximately 40 percent of the fees will be billed 

for specific services (Part 170) and the remaining 60 percent will be billed to annual fees (Part 

171). The hourly rate for Part 170 activities will increase nominally from $257 to $259 per hour. 

The increase is due primarily to increased infrastructure and support costs for the new reactor 

program, fuel facility reviews, reactor licensing renewal, and spent nuclear fuel storage and 

transportation activities. 

 The final rule amends fees for some licensees due to updated Part 170 fee estimates. The 

FY2010 rule includes the following: First, NRC will cut costs by not mailing hard copies of the 

proposed fee rule to all licensees, but instead will send a short summary with instructions on how 

to access complete documents on the Internet. Second, NRC will review its fee policies for power 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 10-105 June 16, 2010
reactors, as it anticipates receiving additional applications to license small and medium-sized 

commercial nuclear reactors. Third, in FY2011 the agency plans to change its policy for issuance 

of inspection bills to licensees. Currently, inspection costs are billed only after the inspections are 

completed. In some cases, this can result in inspection costs accumulating over several billing 

cycles. Instead, inspection hours will be billed on a quarterly basis as work is performed. 

 The NRC is continuing its efforts to keep its fees as low as possible by ensuring its 

programs are conducted efficiently and effectively and requesting from Congress only the 

resources necessary to perform its mission of protecting people and the environment. 

 The proposed FY 2010 annual fees are categorized by types of licensees/applicants and 

include the following: 

 NRC estimates that the FY2010 annual fees will be paid by licensees of 104 nuclear power 

reactors, 4 non-power reactors, 19 spent nuclear fuel storage/reactor-in-decommissioning 

facilities, 12 fuel cycle facilities, 10 uranium recovery facilities, and approximately 3,150 nuclear 

material users. 

Class/Category UFY 2010 Proposed Annual Fee

Operating Power Reactors (including Spent Fuel Storage/ 

 Reactor Decommissioning annual fee). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,784,000

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $148,000

Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $81,700

High-Enriched Uranium Fuel Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,439,000

Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,047,000

UF6 Conversion Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,111,000

Conventional Mills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $38,300

Radiographers (Category 3O) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $28,200

Well Loggers (Category 5A). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11,900

Gauge Users (Category 3P). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,500

Broad Scope Medical licensees (Category 7B). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45,100

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