32146 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

10 CFR Parts 15, 170, and 171 

[NRC–2018–0292] 

RIN 3150–AK24 

Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee 

Recovery for Fiscal Year 2021 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is amending the 

licensing, inspection, special project, 

and annual fees charged to its 

applicants and licensees. These 

amendments are necessary to 

implement the Nuclear Energy 

Innovation and Modernization Act 

(NEIMA), which, beginning with fiscal 

year (FY) 2021, requires the NRC to 

recover, to the maximum extent 

practicable, approximately 100 percent 

of its annual budget less certain 

amounts excluded from this feerecovery requirement. In addition, the 

NRC is also making improvements 

associated with fee invoicing to 

implement provisions of NEIMA. 

DATES: This final rule is effective on 

August 16, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID 

NRC–2018–0292 when contacting the 

NRC about the availability of 

information for this action. You may 

obtain publicly-available information 

related to this action by any of the 

following methods: 

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2018–0292. Address 

questions about NRC dockets to Dawn 

Forder; telephone: 301–415–3407; 

email: Dawn.Forder@nrc.gov. For 

technical questions, contact the 

individual listed in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

final rule. 

• NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS): You may obtain publiclyavailable documents online in the 

ADAMS Public Documents collection at 

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ 

adams.html. To begin the search, select 

‘‘Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.’’ For 

problems with ADAMS, please contact 

the NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR) 

reference staff at 1–800–397–4209, 301– 

415–4737, or by email to pdr.resource@

nrc.gov. The ADAMS accession number 

for each document referenced (if it is 

available in ADAMS) is provided the 

first time that it is mentioned in this 

document. For the convenience of the 

reader, the ADAMS accession numbers 

and instructions about obtaining 

materials referenced in this document 

are provided in the ‘‘Availability of 

Documents’’ section of this document. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Anthony Rossi, Office of the Chief 

Financial Officer, U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, telephone: 301–415– 

7341; email: Anthony.Rossi@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Table of Contents 

I. Background; Statutory Authority 

II. Discussion 

III. Public Comment Analysis 

IV. Public Comments and NRC Responses 

V. Regulatory Flexibility Certification 

VI. Regulatory Analysis 

VII. Backfitting and Issue Finality 

VIII. Plain Writing 

IX. National Environmental Policy Act 

X. Paperwork Reduction Act Public 

Protection Notification 

XI. Congressional Review Act 

XII. Voluntary Consensus Standards 

XIII. Availability of Guidance 

XIV. Availability of Documents 

I. Background; Statutory Authority 

A. Statutory Authority 

Revised Fee-Recovery Framework for 

FY 2021 and Subsequent Fiscal Years 

The NRC is amending the licensing, 

inspection, special project, and annual 

fees charged to its applicants and 

licensees. These amendments are 

necessary to implement Public Law 

115–439, NEIMA (42 U.S.C. 2215). The 

NEIMA fee-related changes, effective 

October 1, 2020, include (1) repealing 

the prior fee-recovery framework and 

replacing it with a revised framework 

and (2) requirements to improve the 

accuracy of invoices for service fees. 

Effective October 1, 2020, NEIMA 

repealed Section 6101 of the Omnibus 

Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, as 

amended (OBRA–90) (42 U.S.C. 2214), 

and put in place a revised fee-recovery 

framework for FY 2021 and subsequent 

fiscal years, requiring the NRC to 

recover, to the maximum extent 

practicable, approximately 100 percent 

of its total budget authority for the fiscal 

year, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities. For FYs 2005 

through 2020, OBRA–90 required the 

NRC to recover through fees 

approximately 90 percent of its budget 

authority for the fiscal year, less 

amounts for the activities excluded from 

fee recovery under OBRA–90 or other 

legislation. The 10 percent of the 

remaining budget authority not 

recovered through fees was historically 

referred to as fee-relief activities. In this 

final rule, the NRC has established a 

revised fee-recovery framework, which 

eliminates the 10 percent limit on feerelief activities. Accordingly, the NRC 

will no longer provide a fee-relief credit 

(when the amount budgeted for feerelief activities is less than the 10 

percent threshold, which would have 

decreased annual fees for licensees) or 

assess a fee-relief surcharge (when the 

amount budgeted for fee-relief activities 

is greater than the 10 percent threshold, 

which would have increased annual 

fees for licensees) as part of the 

calculation of annual fees for each 

licensee fee class. 

In FY 2021, the NRC’s fee regulations 

are primarily governed by two laws: (1) 

The Independent Offices Appropriation 

Act, 1952 (IOAA) (31 U.S.C. 9701), and 

(2) NEIMA (42 U.S.C. 2215). The IOAA 

authorizes and encourages Federal 

agencies to recover—to the fullest extent 

possible—costs attributable to services 

provided to identifiable recipients. 

Under NEIMA, the NRC must recover, to 

the maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its annual 

budget, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities. Under Section 

102(b)(1)(B) of NEIMA, ‘‘excluded 

activities’’ include any fee-relief activity 

as identified by the Commission, 

generic homeland security activities, 

waste incidental to reprocessing 

activities, Nuclear Waste Fund 

activities, advanced reactor regulatory 

infrastructure activities, Inspector 

General services for the Defense Nuclear 

Facilities Safety Board, research and 

development at universities in areas 

relevant to the NRC’s mission, and a 

nuclear science and engineering grant 

program. 

In FY 2021, the fee-relief activities 

identified by the Commission are 

consistent with prior final fee rules and 

include Agreement State oversight, 

regulatory support to Agreement States, 

medical isotope production 

infrastructure, fee exemptions for nonprofit educational institutions, costs not 

recovered from small entities under 

§ 171.16(c) of title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (10 CFR), generic 

decommissioning/reclamation activities, 

the NRC’s uranium recovery program 

and unregistered general licenses, 

potential U.S. Department of Defense 

Program Memorandum of 

Understanding activities (Military 

Radium-226), and non-military radium 

sites. In addition, for FY 2021, the 

Commission identified international 

activities, not including the resources 

for import and export licensing, as feerelief activities to be excluded from the 

fee-recovery requirement. 

Under NEIMA, the NRC must use its 

IOAA authority first to collect service 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 32147 

fees for NRC work that provides specific 

benefits to identifiable recipients (such 

as licensing work, inspections, and 

special projects). The NRC’s regulations 

in 10 CFR part 170, ‘‘Fees for Facilities, 

Materials, Import and Export Licenses, 

and Other Regulatory Services Under 

the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as 

Amended,’’ explain how the agency 

collects service fees from specific 

beneficiaries. Because the NRC’s fee 

recovery under the IOAA (10 CFR part 

170) will not equal 100 percent of the 

agency’s total budget authority for the 

fiscal year (less the budget authority for 

excluded activities), the NRC also 

assesses ‘‘annual fees’’ under 10 CFR 

part 171, ‘‘Annual Fees for Reactor 

Licenses and Fuel Cycle Licenses and 

Materials Licenses, Including Holders of 

Certificates of Compliance, 

Registrations, and Quality Assurance 

Program Approvals and Government 

Agencies Licensed by the NRC,’’ to 

recover the remaining amount necessary 

to comply with NEIMA. 

In addition, Section 102(b)(3)(B)(i) of 

NEIMA establishes a new cap for the 

annual fees charged to operating reactor 

licensees; under this provision, the 

annual fee for an operating reactor 

licensee, to the maximum extent 

practicable, shall not exceed the annual 

fee amount per operating reactor 

licensee established in the FY 2015 final 

fee rule (80 FR 37432; June 30, 2015), 

adjusted for inflation (see Section II, 

Discussion, ‘‘FY 2021 Fee Collection— 

Revised Annual Fees,’’ of this final 

rule). 

B. Accurate Invoicing 

Section 102(d) of NEIMA requires 

three sets of actions related to NRC 

invoices for service fees assessed under 

10 CFR part 170. First, as stated in 

Section 102(d)(1) of NEIMA, the NRC 

must ‘‘ensure appropriate review and 

approval prior to the issuance of 

invoices’’ for service fees. Second, as 

stated in Section 102(d)(2) of NEIMA, 

the NRC must ‘‘develop and implement 

processes to audit invoices [for 10 CFR 

part 170 service fees] to ensure 

accuracy, transparency, and fairness.’’ 

Third, as stated in Section 102(d)(3) of 

NEIMA, the NRC is required to ‘‘modify 

regulations to ensure fair and 

appropriate processes to provide 

licensees and applicants an opportunity 

to efficiently dispute or otherwise seek 

review and correction of errors in 

invoices’’ for service fees. 

The NRC developed and implemented 

process improvements to ensure 

accurate invoicing for the first two 

actions. First, in July 2019, the NRC 

implemented a new agencywide process 

to standardize the validation of fees, 

which fully satisfies Section 102(d)(1) 

and partially addresses Section 

102(d)(2) of NEIMA. The new 

standardized process improved 

accountability and oversight within the 

NRC to ensure that fee billing data is 

correct before appearing on a licensee’s 

invoice. Standardizing the fee validation 

process defines roles and 

responsibilities for performing fee 

billing validation and certification; this 

standardization process also improves 

accountability and internal controls by 

adding management oversight to 

improve the accuracy of fee billing data. 

The NRC’s new process will lead to 

improved internal and external auditing 

of service fee invoices to ensure 

accuracy, transparency, and fairness of 

invoices. The process requires offices 

with fee billable charges to regularly 

review and certify hours and costs to 

validate the charges before the NRC 

sends a bill for service fees. On an 

annual basis, external financial 

statement auditors will conduct an audit 

of a sample of invoices to determine 

whether the NRC is accurately invoicing 

in accordance with the NRC’s fee 

schedules. Therefore, the NRC’s 

invoices will be reviewed and audited 

by both internal and external parties. 

The second NEIMA accurate 

invoicing action also concerns the 

transparency and fairness of the overall 

billing process. The NRC is firmly 

committed to the application of fairness 

and equity in the assessment of fees. All 

10 CFR part 170 service fees are 

reassessed and published in the Federal 

Register on a yearly basis. In January 

2018, the NRC redesigned its invoices to 

add clarity and transparency for its 

stakeholders; new features included an 

invoice legend of NRC acronyms and 

the names of individual NRC staff and/ 

or the contractor company, if applicable, 

who had performed the work associated 

with the charges were added. In 

addition, the NRC’s staff hours and 

contractor costs were listed separately 

on invoices so the recipient could view 

the subtotals for the two different 

categories of costs. Finally, the NRC 

implemented a new data structure to 

more effectively account for and track 

all billable work at the project level. The 

structure included a data element called 

an Enterprise Project Identifier (EPID), 

which provides useful details regarding 

the type of project or work that is being 

billed. Inspection report numbers were 

converted to EPIDs to provide more 

information, and descriptions of 

inspection activities were added to the 

invoice. Using this data structure 

enabled the NRC’s licensees and other 

persons assessed service fees to identify 

how many hours are being expended on 

each of the various activities within a 

project. To further these efforts, the NRC 

standardized its Cost Activity Codes 

(CACs) for all agency activities to clearly 

provide licensees with consistent 

descriptions of the work being 

performed across licensing actions, 

inspections, and over multiple dockets. 

Invoices for service fees are now 

presented in a more useful and readable 

manner and hours and costs are no 

longer commingled. As a result, the 

NRC’s invoices provide stakeholders 

greater transparency regarding fees. 

In addition, in October 2019, the NRC 

released an electronic billing (eBilling) 

system. This public-facing, web-based 

application provides persons assessed 

service fees, including licensees, 

immediate delivery of NRC invoices, 

customizable email notifications, the 

capability to view and analyze invoice 

details, and access to the U.S. 

Department of the Treasury systems to 

pay invoices. The eBilling application 

provides persons assessed service fees, 

including licensees, increased billing 

process transparency and has increased 

applicant and licensee confidence in the 

assessed fees and charges. 

To address the third action, the NRC 

is modifying the regulations under 10 

CFR chapter I to provide a standard 

process for licensees and applicants to 

efficiently dispute or otherwise seek 

review and correction of errors in 

invoices for services fees (see Section II, 

Discussion, ‘‘FY 2021—Policy 

Changes,’’ of this final rule). 

II. Discussion 

FY 2021 Fee Collection—Overview 

The NRC is issuing this FY 2021 final 

fee rule based on the Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2021 (the enacted 

budget). The final fee rule reflects a total 

budget authority in the amount of 

$844.4 million, a decrease of $11.2 

million from FY 2020. As explained 

previously, certain portions of the 

NRC’s total budget authority for the 

fiscal year are excluded from NEIMA’s 

fee-recovery requirement under Section 

102(b)(1)(B) of NEIMA. Based on the FY 

2021 enacted budget, these exclusions 

total $123.0 million, consisting of $91.2 

million for fee-relief activities, $17.7 

million for advanced reactor regulatory 

infrastructure activities, $11.7 million 

for generic homeland security activities, 

$1.2 million for waste incidental to 

reprocessing activities, and $1.2 million 

for Inspector General services for the 

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. 

Table I summarizes the excluded 

activities for the FY 2021 final rule. 


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1For each table, numbers may not add due to 

rounding. 

TABLE I—EXCLUDED ACTIVITIES

[Dollars in millions] 

FY 2021 

final rule 

Fee-Relief Activities: 

International activities (not including the resources for import and export licensing) .................................................................. $24.7 

Agreement State oversight ........................................................................................................................................................... 10.4 

Medical isotope production infrastructure .................................................................................................................................... 7.0 

Fee exemption for nonprofit educational institutions ................................................................................................................... 9.3 

Costs not recovered from small entities under 10 CFR 171.16(c) .............................................................................................. 7.8 

Regulatory support to Agreement States ..................................................................................................................................... 12.3 

Generic decommissioning/reclamation activities (not related to the operating power reactors and spent fuel storage fee 

classes) ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 14.9 

Uranium recovery program and unregistered general licensees ................................................................................................. 3.7 

Potential Department of Defense remediation program Memorandum of Understanding activities ........................................... 1.0 

Non-military radium sites .............................................................................................................................................................. 0.2 

Subtotal Fee-Relief Activities ....................................................................................................................................................... 91.2 

Activities under Section 102(b)(1)(B)(ii) of NEIMA (Generic Homeland Security activities, Waste Incidental to Reprocessing activities, and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board) .............................................................................................................. 14.1 

Advanced reactor regulatory infrastructure activities .......................................................................................................................... 17.7 

Total Excluded Activities .............................................................................................................................................................. 123.0 

After accounting for the exclusions 

from the fee-recovery requirement and 

net billing adjustments (i.e., for FY 2021 

invoices that the NRC estimates will not 

be paid during the fiscal year, less 

payments received in FY 2021 for prior 

year invoices and current year 

collections made for the termination of 

one operating power reactor), the NRC 

must recover approximately $708.0 

million in fees in FY 2021. Of this 

amount, the NRC estimates that $190.6 

million will be recovered through 10 

CFR part 170 service fees and 

approximately $517.4 million will be 

recovered through 10 CFR part 171 

annual fees. Table II summarizes the 

fee-recovery amounts for the FY 2021 

final fee rule using the enacted budget 

and takes into account the budget 

authority for excluded activities and net 

billing adjustments. For all information 

presented in the following tables, 

individual values may not sum to totals 

due to rounding. Please see the work 

papers (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML21119A024) for actual amounts. 

In FY 2021, the explanatory statement 

associated with the Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2021, also includes 

direction for the NRC to use $35.0 

million in prior-year unobligated 

carryover funds, including $16.0 million 

for the University Nuclear Leadership 

Program, which replaced the Integrated 

University Program. The NRC does not 

assess fees in the current fiscal year for 

any carryover funds because, consistent 

with the requirements of NEIMA, fees 

are calculated based on the budget 

authority enacted for the current fiscal 

year and fees were already assessed in 

the fiscal year in which the carryover 

funds were appropriated. 

TABLE II—BUDGET AND FEE RECOVERY AMOUNTS 1

[Dollars in millions] 

FY 2021 

final rule 

Total Budget Authority ......................................................................................................................................................................... $844.4 

Less Budget Authority for Excluded Activities: .................................................................................................................................... ¥123.0 

Balance ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 721.4 

Fee Recovery Percent ......................................................................................................................................................................... 100 

Total Amount to be Recovered: .......................................................................................................................................................... 721.4 

Less Estimated Amount to be Recovered through 10 CFR Part 170 Fees ................................................................................ ¥190.6 

Estimated Amount to be Recovered through 10 CFR Part 171 Fees ......................................................................................... 530.8 

10 CFR Part 171 Billing Adjustments: 

Unpaid Current Year Invoices (estimated) ................................................................................................................................... 2.1 

Less Current Year Collections from a Terminated Reactor—Indian Point Nuclear Generating, Unit 2 in FY 2020 and Indian 

Point Nuclear Generating, Unit 3 in FY 2021 ........................................................................................................................... ¥2.7 

Less Payments Received in Current Year for Previous Year Invoices (estimated) .................................................................... ¥12.8 

Adjusted Amount to be Recovered through 10 CFR Parts 170 and 171 Fees .................................................................................. 708.0 

Adjusted 10 CFR Part 171 Annual Fee Collections Required ............................................................................................................ $517.4 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 32149 

2The fees collected by the NRC for Freedom of 

Information Act (FOIA) services and indemnity fees 

(financial protection required of all licensees for 

public liability claims at 10 CFR part 140) are 

subtracted from the budgeted resources amount 

when calculating the 10 CFR part 170 professional 

hourly rate, per the guidance in the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A–25, 

User Charges. The budgeted resources for FOIA 

activities are allocated under the product for 

Information Services within the Corporate Support 

business line. The budgeted resources for 

indemnity activities are allocated under the 

Licensing Actions and Research and Test Reactors 

products within the Operating Reactors business 

line. 

FY 2021 Fee Collection—Professional 

Hourly Rate 

The NRC uses a professional hourly 

rate to assess fees under 10 CFR part 170 

for specific services it provides. The 

professional hourly rate also helps 

determine flat fees (which are used for 

the review of certain types of license 

applications). This rate is applicable to 

all activities for which fees are assessed 

under §§ 170.21 and 170.31. 

The NRC’s professional hourly rate is 

derived by adding budgeted resources 

for: (1) Mission-direct program salaries 

and benefits, (2) mission-indirect 

program support, and (3) agency 

support (corporate support and the 

Inspector General). The NRC then 

subtracts certain offsetting receipts and 

divides this total by the mission-direct 

full-time equivalent (FTE) converted to 

hours (the mission-direct FTE converted 

to hours is the product of the missiondirect FTE multiplied by the estimated 

annual mission-direct FTE productive 

hours). The only budgeted resources 

excluded from the professional hourly 

rate are those for mission-direct contract 

resources, which are generally billed to 

licensees separately. The following 

shows the professional hourly rate 

calculation: 

For FY 2021, the NRC is increasing 

the professional hourly rate from $279 

to $288. The 3.2 percent increase in the 

FY 2021 professional hourly rate is 

primarily due to a 2.1 percent increase 

in budgetary resources of approximately 

$15.0 million. The increase in budgetary 

resources is, in turn, primarily due to an 

increase in salaries and benefits to 

support Federal pay raises for NRC 

employees. The anticipated decline in 

the number of mission-direct FTE 

compared to FY 2020 also contributed 

to the increase in the professional 

hourly rate. The professional hourly rate 

is inversely related to the mission-direct 

FTE amount; therefore, as the number of 

mission-direct FTE decrease the 

professional hourly rate can increase. 

The number of mission-direct FTE is 

expected to decline by 17, primarily due 

to: (1) The completion of probabilistic 

risk assessment reviews related to 

lessons learned from the accident at 

Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan; (2) the 

closure of Duane Arnold Energy Center 

(Duane Arnold); and (3) the reduced 

workload associated with significance 

determinations, operating experience 

evaluations, and generic 

communications development. 

The FY 2021 estimate for annual 

mission-direct FTE productive hours is 

1,510 hours, which is unchanged from 

FY 2020. This estimate, also referred to 

as the productive hours assumption, 

reflects the average number of hours 

that a mission-direct employee spends 

on mission-direct work in a given year. 

This estimate, therefore, excludes hours 

charged to annual leave, sick leave, 

holidays, training, and general 

administrative tasks. Table III shows the 

professional hourly rate calculation 

methodology. The FY 2020 amounts are 

provided for comparison purposes. 

TABLE III—PROFESSIONAL HOURLY RATE CALCULATION

[Dollars in millions, except as noted] 

FY 2020 

final rule 

FY 2021 

final rule 

Mission-Direct Program Salaries & Benefits ........................................................................................................... $314.6 $335.3 

Mission-Indirect Program Support ........................................................................................................................... $110.8 $113.2 

Agency Support (Corporate Support and the IG) ................................................................................................... $291.5 $283.7 

Subtotal ............................................................................................................................................................. $716.9 $732.2 

Less Offsetting Receipts 2 ....................................................................................................................................... $0.0 $0.0 

Total Budgeted Resources Included in Professional Hourly Rate .......................................................................... $716.9 $732.2 

Mission-Direct FTE (Whole numbers) ..................................................................................................................... 1,701 1,684 

Annual Mission-Direct FTE Productive Hours (Whole numbers) ............................................................................ 1,510 1,510 

Mission-Direct FTE Converted to Hours (Mission-Direct FTE multiplied by Annual Mission-Direct FTE Productive Hours) ............................................................................................................................................................ 2,568,510 2,542,840 

Professional Hourly Rate (Total Budgeted Resources Included in Professional Hourly Rate Divided by MissionDirect FTE Converted to Hours) (Whole Numbers) ............................................................................................ $279 $288 

FY 2021 Fee Collection—Flat 

Application Fee Changes 

The NRC is amending the flat 

application fees it charges in its 

schedule of fees in §§ 170.21 and 170.31 

to reflect the revised professional hourly 

rate of $288. The NRC charges these fees 

to applicants for materials licenses and 

other regulatory services, as well as to 

holders of materials licenses. The NRC 

calculates these flat fees by multiplying 

the average professional staff hours 

needed to process the licensing actions 

by the professional hourly rate for FY 

2021. As part of its calculations, the 

NRC analyzes the actual hours spent 

performing licensing actions and 

estimates the five-year average of 

professional staff hours that are needed 

to process licensing actions as part of its 

biennial review of fees; these actions are 

required by Section 205(a) of the Chief 

Financial Officers Act of 1990 (31 U.S.C. 


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Professional 

Hourly Rate 

= Budgeted Resources 

Mission-Direct FTE Converted to 

Hours 

=------

$732.2 million 

1,684x1,510 = $288 
32150 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

902(a)(8)). The NRC performed this 

review in FY 2021 and will perform this 

review again in FY 2023. The biennial 

review adjustments and the higher 

professional hourly rate of $288 are the 

primary reasons for the increase in flat 

application fees (see the work papers). 

In order to simplify billing, the NRC 

rounds these flat fees to a minimal 

degree. Specifically, the NRC rounds 

these flat fees (up or down) in such a 

way that ensures both convenience for 

its stakeholders and that any rounding 

effects are minimal. Accordingly, fees 

under $1,000 are rounded to the nearest 

$10, fees between $1,000 and $100,000 

are rounded to the nearest $100, and 

fees greater than $100,000 are rounded 

to the nearest $1,000. 

The flat fees are applicable for import 

and export licensing actions (see fee 

categories K.1. through K.5. of § 170.21 

and fee categories 15.A. through 15.R. of 

§ 170.31), as well as certain materials 

licensing actions (see fee categories 1.C. 

through 1.D., 2.B. through 2.F., 3.A. 

through 3.S., 4.B. through 5.A., 6.A. 

through 9.D., 10.B., 15.A. through 15.L., 

15.R., and 16 of § 170.31). Applications 

filed on or after the effective date of the 

FY 2021 final fee rule will be subject to 

the revised fees in the final rule. 

FY 2021 Fee Collection—Low-Level 

Waste Surcharge 

As in prior years, the NRC is assessing 

a generic low-level waste (LLW) 

surcharge of $3.4 million. Disposal of 

LLW occurs at commercially-operated 

LLW disposal facilities that are licensed 

by either the NRC or an Agreement 

State. Four existing LLW disposal 

facilities in the United States accept 

various types of LLW. All are located in 

Agreement States and, therefore, are 

regulated by an Agreement State, rather 

than the NRC. The NRC is allocating 

this surcharge to its licensees based on 

data available in the U.S. Department of 

Energy’s (DOE) Manifest Information 

Management System. This database 

contains information on total LLW 

volumes disposed of by four generator 

classes: Academic, industrial, medical, 

and utility. The ratio of waste volumes 

disposed of by these generator classes to 

total LLW volumes disposed over a 

period of time is used to estimate the 

portion of this surcharge that will be 

allocated to the power reactors, fuel 

facilities, and the materials users fee 

classes. The materials users fee class 

portion is adjusted to account for the 

large percentage of materials licensees 

that are licensed by the Agreement 

States rather than the NRC. 

Table IV shows the allocation of the 

LLW surcharge and its allocation across 

the various fee classes. 

TABLE IV—ALLOCATION OF LLW SURCHARGE FY 2021 

[Dollars in millions] 

Fee classes 

LLW Surcharge 

Percent $ 

Operating Power Reactors ...................................................................................................................................... 87.5 $2.941 

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning ...................................................................................................... 0.0 0.000 

Non-Power Production or Utilization Facilities ........................................................................................................ 0.0 0.000 

Fuel Facilities ........................................................................................................................................................... 9.9 0.333 

Materials Users ........................................................................................................................................................ 2.6 0.087 

Transportation .......................................................................................................................................................... 0.0 0.000 

Rare Earth Facilities ................................................................................................................................................ 0.0 0.000 

Uranium Recovery ................................................................................................................................................... 0.0 0.000 

Total .................................................................................................................................................................. 100.0 3.361 

FY 2021 Fee Collection—Revised 

Annual Fees 

In accordance with SECY–05–0164, 

‘‘Annual Fee Calculation Method’’ 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML052580332), 

the NRC rebaselines its annual fees 

every year. ‘‘Rebaselining’’ entails 

analyzing the budget in detail and then 

allocating the budgeted resources to 

various classes or subclasses of 

licensees. It also includes updating the 

number of NRC licensees in its fee 

calculation methodology. 

The NRC is revising its annual fees in 

§§ 171.15 and 171.16 to recover 

approximately 100 percent of the NRC’s 

FY 2021 enacted budget (less the budget 

authority for excluded activities and the 

estimated amount to be recovered 

through 10 CFR part 170 fees). The total 

estimated 10 CFR part 170 collections 

for this final rule are $190.6 million, 

which is a decrease of $29.6 million 

from the FY 2020 final rule (see the 

specific fee class sections for a 

discussion of this decrease). The NRC, 

therefore, must recover $517.4 million 

through annual fees from its licensees, 

which is an increase of $9.5 million 

from the FY 2020 final rule. 

Table V shows the rebaselined fees for 

FY 2021 for a sample of licensee 

categories. The FY 2020 amounts are 

provided for comparison purposes. 

TABLE V—REBASELINED ANNUAL FEES

[Actual dollars] 

Class/category of licenses 

FY 2020 

final 

annual fee 

($) 

FY 2021 

final 

annual fee 

($) 

Operating Power Reactors ...................................................................................................................................... $4,621,000 $4,749,000 

+ Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning ................................................................................................... 188,000 237,000 

Total, Combined Fee ........................................................................................................................................ 4,809,000 4,986,000 

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning ...................................................................................................... 188,000 237,000 

Non-Power Production or Utilization Facilities ........................................................................................................ 81,300 80,000 

High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility (Category 1.A.(1)(a)) .................................................................................... 5,067,000 4,643,000 

Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility (Category 1.A.(1)(b)) ..................................................................................... 1,717,000 1,573,000 


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TABLE V—REBASELINED ANNUAL FEES—Continued 

[Actual dollars] 

Class/category of licenses 

FY 2020 

final 

annual fee 

($) 

FY 2021 

final 

annual fee 

($) 

Uranium Enrichment (Category 1.E) ....................................................................................................................... 2,208,000 2,023,000 

UF6 Conversion and Deconversion Facility (Category 2.A.(1) ............................................................................... 510,000 467,000 

Basic In Situ Recovery Facilities (Category 2.A.(2)(b)) .......................................................................................... 49,200 47,200 

Typical Users: 

Radiographers (Category 3O) .......................................................................................................................... 29,900 29,100 

All Other Specific Byproduct Material Licensees (Category 3P) ..................................................................... 9,700 9,900 

Medical Other (Category 7C) ........................................................................................................................... 14,800 16,800 

Device/Product Safety Evaluation—Broad (Category 9A) ............................................................................... 13,800 17,900 

The work papers that support this 

final rule show in detail how the NRC 

allocates the budgeted resources for 

each class of licensees and calculates 

the fees. 

Paragraphs a. through h. of this 

section describe the budgeted resources 

allocated to each class of licensees and 

the calculations of the rebaselined fees. 

For more information about detailed fee 

calculations for each class, please 

consult the accompanying work papers 

for this final rule. 

a. Operating Power Reactors 

The NRC will collect $441.7 million 

in annual fees from the operating power 

reactors fee class in FY 2021, as shown 

in Table VI. The FY 2020 operating 

power reactors fees are shown for 

comparison purposes. 

TABLE VI—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR OPERATING POWER REACTORS

[Dollars in millions] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 

final 

FY 2021 

final 

Total budgeted resources ........................................................................................................................................ $623.9 $611.8 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥186.7 ¥161.6 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 437.2 450.2 

Allocated generic transportation .............................................................................................................................. 0.2 0.3 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... ¥1.2 N/A 

Allocated LLW surcharge ........................................................................................................................................ 3.1 2.9 

Billing adjustment ..................................................................................................................................................... 2.4 ¥9.1 

Adjustment: Estimated current year collections from terminated reactor (Indian Point Generating, Unit 2 in FY 

2020 and Indian Point Generating, Unit 3 in FY 2021) ....................................................................................... ¥2.7 ¥2.7 

Total required annual fee recovery .................................................................................................................. 439.0 441.7 

Total operating reactors ................................................................................................................................... 95 93 

Annual fee per reactor ............................................................................................................................................. $4.621 $4.749 

In comparison to FY 2020, the FY 

2021 annual fee for the operating power 

reactors fee class is increasing primarily 

due to the following: (1) The decline in 

10 CFR part 170 estimated billings; (2) 

the reduction in the total number of 

operating power reactors due to the 

closure of Duane Arnold and Indian 

Point Energy Center (Indian Point Unit 

3); and (3) the absence of the fee-relief 

credit that was provided in FY 2020 as 

part of the fee-relief adjustment. The 

increase in the annual fee for the 

operating power reactors fee class is 

partially offset due to the following: (1) 

The decrease in budgeted resources; (2) 

the 10 CFR part 171 billing adjustment 

that was included in the operating 

power reactors fee class calculation due 

to the deferral of annual fees and fees 

for services due to the coronavirus 

disease (COVID–19) pandemic; and (3) 

the current year collection adjustment 

due to the shutdown of Indian Point 

Unit 3. These components are discussed 

in the following paragraphs. 

The 10 CFR part 170 estimated 

billings declined primarily due to the 

following: (1) The decrease due to the 

plant closures; (2) the completion of 

construction activities at Vogtle Electric 

Generating Plant, Unit 3 (Vogtle Unit 3); 

(3) the completion of the NuScale small 

modular reactor (SMR) design 

certification review; and (4) the impact 

of continued travel restrictions and 

limited on-site presence on inspection 

activities due to the COVID–19 

pandemic. This decrease in the 10 CFR 

part 170 estimated billings is partially 

offset by increased work to support the 

following: (1) The review of the Oklo 

Power LLC combined license (COL) 

application for the Aurora micro reactor, 

which was docketed in June 2020; and 

(2) rescheduled inspection activities 

that were deferred due to the COVID–19 

pandemic. 

In addition, as a result of the revised 

fee-recovery framework under NEIMA, 

the FY 2021 annual fee increased due to 

the absence of the fee-relief credit that 

was provided in FY 2020 as part of the 

fee-relief adjustment. Because NEIMA 

eliminated the approximately 90 

percent requirement for fee recovery 

and, in turn, the 10 percent limit on feerelief activities, the NRC will no longer 

provide a fee-relief credit or assess a feerelief surcharge as part of the 

calculation of annual fees for each 

licensee fee class. 

The increase in the annual fee is 

partially offset by a decline in FTEs 

associated with changes in workload, 

including, but not limited to, the 

following: (1) The completion of 

probabilistic risk assessment reviews 

related to lessons learned from the 


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accident at Fukushima Dai-ichi in 

Japan; (2) the closure of Duane Arnold; 

(3) reduced workload associated with 

significance determinations, operating 

experience evaluations, and generic 

communications development; (4) the 

completion of the NuScale SMR design 

certification review; (5) a decrease in 

licensing actions and reduced demand 

for operator licensing and vendor 

inspection work resulting from the 

completion of construction of Vogtle 

Unit 3; and (6) decreases in research 

workload in areas of flooding, high 

energy arc faulting testing, and the near 

completion of the Level 3 probabilistic 

risk assessment project. The decrease in 

the budgeted resources is offset by an 

increase for certain contract costs due to 

a reduction in the utilization of prioryear unobligated carryover funding and 

an increase in the fully-costed FTE rate 

compared to FY 2020. 

In addition, the increase in the annual 

fee is partially offset by the $9,143,303 

billing adjustment that was included in 

the operating power reactors calculation 

due to the deferral of annual fees and 

fees for services due to the COVID–19 

pandemic, and a $2,700,000 current 

year collection adjustment in the 

operating power reactors fee class 

calculation due to the shutdown of 

Indian Point Unit 3. 

The fee-recoverable budgeted 

resources are divided equally among the 

93 licensed operating power reactors, a 

decrease of two operating power 

reactors compared to FY 2020 due to the 

closure of Duane Arnold and Indian 

Point Unit 3, resulting in an annual fee 

of $4,749,000 per reactor. Additionally, 

each licensed operating power reactor is 

assessed the FY 2021 spent fuel storage/ 

reactor decommissioning annual fee of 

$237,000 (see Table VII and the 

discussion that follows). The combined 

FY 2021 annual fee for each operating 

power reactor is $4,986,000. 

The NRC included an estimate of the 

operating power reactors annual fee in 

Appendix C, ‘‘Estimated Operating 

Power Reactors Annual Fee,’’ of the FY 

2021 Congressional Budget Justification 

(CBJ), with the intent to increase 

transparency with stakeholders. The 

NRC developed this estimate based on 

the staff’s allocation of the FY 2021 

budget request to fee classes under 10 

CFR part 170, and allocations within the 

operating power reactors fee class under 

10 CFR part 171. In addition, the 

estimated annual fee assumed 93 

operating power reactors in FY 2021 

and applied various data assumptions 

from the FY 2019 final fee rule (84 FR 

22331; May 17, 2019). Based on these 

allocations and assumptions, the 

operating power reactor annual fee 

included in the FY 2021 CBJ was 

estimated to be $4.8 million, 

approximately $0.6 million below the 

FY 2015 operating power reactors 

annual fee amount adjusted for inflation 

of $5.4 million. Collectively, these 

actions serve to mitigate impacts 

resulting from licensees leaving the fee 

class and help the NRC continue to 

develop budgets that account for a fee 

class with a declining number of 

licensees. Although the FY 2021 CBJ 

included the estimated operating power 

reactors annual fee, the assumptions 

made between budget formulation and 

the development of the FY 2021 final 

rule have changed, as shown in Table 

VI. 

In FY 2016, the NRC amended its 

licensing, inspection, and annual fee 

regulations to establish a variable 

annual fee structure for light-water 

SMRs (81 FR 32617). Under the variable 

annual fee structure, an SMR’s annual 

fee would be assessed as a function of 

its bundled licensed thermal power 

rating. Currently, there are no operating 

SMRs; therefore, the NRC will not assess 

an annual fee in FY 2021 for this type 

of licensee. 

b. Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor 

Decommissioning 

The NRC will collect $28.9 million in 

annual fees from 10 CFR part 50 power 

reactor licensees, and from 10 CFR part 

72 licensees that do not hold a 10 CFR 

part 50 license, to recover the budgeted 

resources for the spent fuel storage/ 

reactor decommissioning fee class in FY 

2021, as shown in Table VII. The FY 

2020 spent fuel storage/reactor 

decommissioning fees are shown for 

comparison purposes. 

TABLE VII—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR SPENT FUEL STORAGE/REACTOR DECOMMISSIONING

[Dollars in millions] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 

final 

FY 2021 

final 

Total budgeted resources ........................................................................................................................................ $37.9 $42.2 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥15.9 ¥13.8 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 22.1 28.4 

Allocated generic transportation costs .................................................................................................................... 0.8 1.1 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... ¥0.1 N/A 

Billing adjustments ................................................................................................................................................... 0.1 ¥0.6 

Total required annual fee recovery .................................................................................................................. 22.9 28.9 

Total spent fuel storage facilities ...................................................................................................................... 122 122 

Annual fee per facility .............................................................................................................................................. $0.188 $0.237 

In comparison to FY 2020, the FY 

2021 annual fee for the spent fuel 

storage/reactor decommissioning fee 

class is increasing primarily due to the 

increase in the budgeted resources and 

the decline in the 10 CFR part 170 

estimated billings. This increase is 

partially offset by the 10 CFR part 171 

billing adjustment that was included in 

the spent fuel storage/reactor 

decommissioning fee class calculation 

due to the deferral of annual fees and 

fees for services due to the COVID–19 

pandemic. These components are 

discussed in the following paragraphs. 

The budgeted resources for the spent 

fuel storage/reactor decommissioning 

fee class increased primarily to support 

the following: (1) Decommissioning 

activities associated with power reactors 

in decommissioning, including the 

transition of Duane Arnold from 

operation to the power reactor 

decommissioning program; and (2) 

waste research activities associated with 

accident tolerant fuel, high burnup, and 

enrichment extension fuels. 

The 10 CFR part 170 estimated 

billings for FY 2021 decreased primarily 

due to the following: (1) A reduction in 

hours associated with the staff’s review 

of applications for renewals and 

amendments for independent spent fuel 

storage installation (ISFSI) licenses and 

dry cask storage certificates of 

compliance (CoCs); (2) the near 


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completion of the staff’s review of the 

Interim Storage Partners consolidated 

interim storage facility application; (3) 

the completion of certain follow-up 

inspections and other inspection 

activities for San Onofre Nuclear 

Generating Station; (4) the completion 

of licensing actions, partial site release 

requests, and a decrease in confirmatory 

survey work at multiple sites; and (5) 

the near completion of the license 

termination for the La Crosse Boiling 

Water Reactor. This decrease in the 10 

CFR part 170 estimated billings is 

partially offset by increased work to 

support the following: (1) Inspection 

activities for ISFSI licenses and dry cask 

storage CoCs; (2) the staff’s safety and 

environmental review of the Holtec HI– 

STORE consolidated interim storage 

facility application; (3) the staff’s review 

of topical reports; and (4) 

decommissioning activities within the 

power reactor decommissioning 

program, including the review of 

decommissioning license amendment 

requests, exemption requests, and 

inspection activities at multiple sites. 

The increase in the annual fee is 

partially offset by an approximate $0.6 

million 10 CFR part 171 billing 

adjustment that was included in the 

spent fuel storage/reactor 

decommissioning calculation due to the 

deferral of annual fees and fees for 

services due to the COVID–19 

pandemic. 

The required annual fee recovery 

amount is divided equally among 122 

licensees, resulting in a FY 2021 annual 

fee of $237,000 per licensee. 

c. Fuel Facilities 

The NRC will collect $17.5 million in 

annual fees from the fuel facilities fee 

class in FY 2021, as shown in Table 

VIII. The FY 2020 fuel facilities fees are 

shown for comparison purposes. 

TABLE VIII—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR FUEL FACILITIES

[Dollars in millions] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 

final 

FY 2021 

final 

Total budgeted resources ........................................................................................................................................ $23.2 $23.3 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥6.8 ¥7.3 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 16.5 16.0 

Allocated generic transportation .............................................................................................................................. 1.1 1.5 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... ¥0.1 N/A 

Allocated LLW surcharge ........................................................................................................................................ 0.4 0.3 

Billing adjustments ................................................................................................................................................... 0.1 ¥0.4 

Total remaining required annual fee recovery ........................................................................................................ $18.0 $17.5 

In comparison to FY 2020, the FY 

2021 annual fee for the fuel facilities fee 

class is decreasing primarily due to the 

increase in 10 CFR part 170 estimated 

billings and the 10 CFR part 171 billing 

adjustment that was included in the fuel 

facilities calculation due to the deferral 

of annual fees and fees for services due 

to the COVID–19 pandemic. The 

decrease in the annual fee is offset by an 

increase in the budgeted resources as 

discussed in the following paragraphs. 

The 10 CFR part 170 estimated 

billings increased as a result of the 

following: (1) The increased workload to 

support the staff’s review of a license 

amendment application associated with 

high assay low-enriched uranium and 

the associated security plans, and (2) the 

review of the Westinghouse 

environmental impact statement being 

developed for the license renewal 

application. As part of the final annual 

fee calculation, an approximate $0.4 

million billing adjustment was included 

in the fuel facilities calculation due to 

the deferral of annual fees and fees for 

services due to the COVID–19 

pandemic. 

The decrease in the annual fee is 

offset, in part, by an increase in the 

resources for contract costs budgeted for 

the fuel facilities fee class primarily due 

to a reduction in the utilization of prioryear unobligated carryover compared to 

FY 2020. 

The NRC will continue allocating 

annual fees to individual fuel facility 

licensees based on the effort/fee 

determination matrix developed in the 

FY 1999 final fee rule (64 FR 31447; 

June 10, 1999). To briefly recap, the 

matrix groups licensees within this fee 

class into various fee categories. The 

matrix lists processes that are conducted 

at licensed sites and assigns effort 

factors for the safety and safeguards 

activities associated with each process 

(these effort levels are reflected in Table 

IX). The annual fees are then distributed 

across the fee class based on the 

regulatory effort assigned by the matrix. 

The effort factors in the matrix represent 

regulatory effort that is not recovered 

through 10 CFR part 170 fees (e.g., 

rulemaking, guidance). Regulatory effort 

for activities that are subject to 10 CFR 

part 170 fees, such as the number of 

inspections, is not applicable to the 

effort factor. 

In addition, the NRC has added an 

annual fee for fee category 1.A.(2), 

‘‘Limited Operations,’’ in anticipation 

that the NRC may decide to issue a 

license amendment in the future that 

would move a licensee to the ‘‘Limited 

Operations’’ fee category from the 1.E, 

‘‘Uranium Enrichment’’ fee category 

because the NRC has received an 

amendment application to a fuel facility 

license that, if granted, would authorize 

a significantly smaller operating facility. 

TABLE IX—EFFORT FACTORS FOR FUEL FACILITIES, FY 2021 

Facility type 

(fee category) 

Number of 

facilities 

Effort factors 

Safety Safeguards 

High-Enriched Uranium Fuel (1.A.(1)(a)) .................................................................................... 2 88 91 

Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel (1.A.(1)(b)) ..................................................................................... 3 70 21 

Limited Operations (1.A.(2)(a)) .................................................................................................... 1 3 17 

Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration (1.A.(2)(b)) .............................................................. 0 0 0 

Hot Cell (and others) (1.A.(2)(c)) ................................................................................................. 0 0 0 


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3Congress established the two programs, Title I 

and Title II, under UMTRCA to protect the public 

and the environment from hazards associated with 

uranium milling. The UMTRCA Title I program is 

for remedial action at abandoned mill tailings sites 

where tailings resulted largely from production of 

uranium for weapons programs. The NRC also 

regulates DOE’s UMTRCA Title II program, which 

is directed toward uranium mill sites licensed by 

the NRC or Agreement States in or after 1978. 

TABLE IX—EFFORT FACTORS FOR FUEL FACILITIES, FY 2021—Continued 

Facility type 

(fee category) 

Number of 

facilities 

Effort factors 

Safety Safeguards 

Uranium Enrichment (1.E.) .......................................................................................................... 1 16 23 

UF6 Conversion and Deconversion (2.A.(1)) ............................................................................... 1 7 2 

In FY 2021, the total remaining 

amount of annual fees to be recovered, 

$17.5 million, is attributable to safety 

activities, safeguards activities, and the 

LLW surcharge. For FY 2021, the total 

budgeted resources to be recovered as 

annual fees for safety activities are $9.4 

million. To calculate the annual fee, the 

NRC allocates this amount to each fee 

category based on its percentage of the 

total regulatory effort for safety 

activities. Similarly, the NRC allocates 

the budgeted resources to be recovered 

as annual fees for safeguards activities, 

$7.8 million, to each fee category based 

on its percentage of the total regulatory 

effort for safeguards activities. Finally, 

the fuel facilities fee class portion of the 

LLW surcharge—$0.3 million—is 

allocated to each fee category based on 

its percentage of the total regulatory 

effort for both safety and safeguards 

activities. The annual fee per licensee is 

then calculated by dividing the total 

allocated budgeted resources for the fee 

category by the number of licensees in 

that fee category. The fee for each 

facility is summarized in Table X. 

TABLE X—ANNUAL FEES FOR FUEL FACILITIES

[Actual dollars] 

Facility type 

(fee category) 

FY 2020 

final 

annual fee 

FY 2021 

final 

annual fee 

High-Enriched Uranium Fuel (1.A.(1)(a)) ................................................................................................................ $5,067,000 $4,643,000 

Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel (1.A.(1)(b)) ................................................................................................................. 1,717,000 1,573,000 

Facilities with limited operations (1.A.(2)(a)) ........................................................................................................... N/A 1,037,000 

Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration (1.A.(2)(b)) .......................................................................................... N/A N/A 

Hot Cell (and others) (1.A.(2)(c)) ............................................................................................................................. N/A N/A 

Uranium Enrichment (1.E.) ...................................................................................................................................... 2,208,000 2,023,000 

UF6 Conversion and Deconversion (2.A.(1)) .......................................................................................................... 510,000 467,000 

d. Uranium Recovery Facilities 

The NRC will collect $0.2 million in 

annual fees from the uranium recovery 

facilities fee class in FY 2021, as shown 

in Table XI. The FY 2020 uranium 

recovery facilities fees are shown for 

comparison purposes. 

TABLE XI—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR URANIUM RECOVERY FACILITIES

[Dollars in millions] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 

final 

FY 2021 

final 

Total budgeted resources ........................................................................................................................................ $0.6 $0.5 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥0.4 ¥0.3 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 0.2 0.2 

Allocated generic transportation .............................................................................................................................. N/A N/A 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... 0.0 N/A 

Billing adjustments ................................................................................................................................................... 0.0 0.0 

Total required annual fee recovery ......................................................................................................................... 0.2 0.2 

In comparison to FY 2020, the FY 

2021 annual fee for the uranium 

recovery facilities fee class is decreasing 

primarily due to a decline in the 

budgeted resources because of an 

expected decrease in casework 

associated with uranium recovery 

policy issues, environmental review 

coordination activities, and guidance 

development. 

The NRC regulates DOE’s Title I and 

Title II activities under the Uranium 

Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act 

(UMTRCA).3 The annual fee assessed to 

DOE includes the resources specifically 

budgeted for the NRC’s UMTRCA Title 

I and II activities, as well as 10 percent 

of the remaining budgeted resources for 

this fee class. The NRC described the 

overall methodology for determining 

fees for UMTRCA in the FY 2002 fee 

rule (67 FR 42625; June 24, 2002), and 

the NRC continues to use this 

methodology. The DOE’s UMTRCA 

annual fee is decreasing compared to FY 

2020 due to an increase in the 10 CFR 

part 170 estimated billings for the 

anticipated workload increases at 

various DOE UMTRCA sites. The NRC 

assesses the remaining 90 percent of its 


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budgeted resources to the remaining 

licensee in this fee class, as described in 

the work papers. This is reflected in 

Table XII: 

TABLE XII—COSTS RECOVERED THROUGH ANNUAL FEES; URANIUM RECOVERY FACILITIES FEE CLASS

[Actual dollars] 

Summary of costs 

FY 2020 

final 

annual fee 

FY 2021 

final 

annual fee 

DOE Annual Fee Amount (UMTRCA Title I and Title II) General Licenses: 

UMTRCA Title I and Title II budgeted resources less 10 CFR part 170 receipts ........................................... $114,577 $111,536 

10 percent of generic/other uranium recovery budgeted resources ................................................................ 5,573 5,241 

10 percent of uranium recovery fee-relief adjustment ..................................................................................... ¥107 N/A 

Total Annual Fee Amount for DOE (rounded) ........................................................................................................ $120,000 $117,000 

Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium Recovery Licenses: 

90 percent of generic/other uranium recovery budgeted resources less the amounts specifically budgeted 

for UMTRCA Title I and Title II activities ...................................................................................................... $50,153 $47,166 

90 percent of uranium recovery fee-relief adjustment ..................................................................................... ¥959 N/A 

Total Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium Recovery Licenses $49,194 $47,166 

Further, for any non-DOE licensees, 

the NRC will continue using a matrix to 

determine the effort levels associated 

with conducting generic regulatory 

actions for the different licensees in the 

uranium recovery facilities fee class; 

this is similar to the NRC’s approach for 

fuel facilities, described previously. The 

matrix methodology for uranium 

recovery licensees first identifies the 

licensee categories included within this 

fee class (excluding DOE). These 

categories are: Conventional uranium 

mills and heap leach facilities, uranium 

in situ recovery (ISR) and resin ISR 

facilities, and mill tailings disposal 

facilities. The matrix identifies the types 

of operating activities that support and 

benefit these licensees, along with each 

activity’s relative weight (see the work 

papers). Currently, there is only one 

remaining non-DOE licensee, which is a 

basic in situ recovery facility. Table XIII 

displays the benefit factors for the nonDOE licensee in that fee category: 

TABLE XIII—BENEFIT FACTORS FOR URANIUM RECOVERY LICENSES

Fee category Number of 

licensees 

Benefit factor 

per licensee Total value Benefit factor percent total 

Conventional and Heap Leach mills (2.A.(2)(a)) ............................................. 0 0 0 0 

Basic In Situ Recovery facilities (2.A.(2)(b)) .................................................... 1 190 190 100.0 

Expanded In Situ Recovery facilities (2.A.(2)(c)) ............................................ 0 0 0 0 

Section 11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites (2.A.(4)) ............. 0 0 0 0 

Total .......................................................................................................... 1 190 190 100.0 

The annual fee for the remaining nonDOE licensee is calculated by allocating 100 percent of the budgeted resources, 

as summarized in Table XIV. 

TABLE XIV—ANNUAL FEES FOR URANIUM RECOVERY LICENSEES

[Other than DOE; actual dollars] 

Facility type 

(fee category) 

FY 2020 

final 

annual fee 

FY 2021 

final 

annual fee 

Conventional and Heap Leach mills (2.A.(2)(a)) ..................................................................................................... N/A N/A 

Basic In Situ Recovery facilities (2.A.(2)(b)) ........................................................................................................... $49,200 $47,200 

Expanded In Situ Recovery facilities (2.A.(2)(c)) .................................................................................................... N/A N/A 

Section 11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites (2.A.(4)) ..................................................................... N/A N/A 

e. Non-Power Production or Utilization 

Facilities 

The NRC will collect $0.320 million 

in annual fees from the non-power 

production or utilization facilities fee 

class in FY 2021, as shown in Table XV. 

The non-power production or 

utilization facilities fee class replaces 

the research and test reactor fee class 

from previous fiscal years. This revised 

fee class accounts for commercial nonpower production and utilization 

facilities expected to be used for the 

production of medical isotopes. The 

final FY 2020 research and test reactors 

fees are shown for comparison 

purposes. 


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TABLE XV—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR NON-POWER PRODUCTION OR UTILIZATION FACILITIES

[Actual dollars] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 final FY 2021 final 

Total budgeted resources ........................................................................................................................................ $3,317,830 $2,896,754 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥3,030,000 ¥2,576,000 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 287,830 320,754 

Allocated generic transportation .............................................................................................................................. 30,713 4,330 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... ¥6,183 N/A 

Billing adjustments ................................................................................................................................................... 12,980 ¥4,391 

Total required annual fee recovery .................................................................................................................. 325,341 320,141 

Total non-power production or utilization facilities licenses ............................................................................. 4 4 

Total annual fee per license (rounded) ................................................................................................................... $81,300 $80,000 

In comparison to FY 2020, the 

budgetary resources for the non-power 

production or utilization facilities fee 

class is primarily decreasing with 

respect to the medical isotope 

production facilities due to the near 

completion of the activities associated 

with the staff’s review of the operating 

license application for SHINE Medical 

Technologies, LLC (SHINE). In addition, 

the 10 CFR part 170 estimated billings 

are declining within the fee class as a 

result of delayed submittals associated 

with medical isotope production 

facilities by various applicants. The 10 

CFR part 170 estimated billings 

associated with the four non-power 

production or utilization facilities 

licensees subject to annual fees 

increased to support the following: (1) 

Activities associated with the review of 

the GE Nuclear Test Reactor license 

renewal application; and (2) activities 

associated with the review of a complex 

license amendment for the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology 

Neutron Reactor. 

The annual fee-recovery amount is 

divided equally among the four nonpower production or utilization 

facilities licensees subject to annual fees 

and results in an FY 2021 annual fee of 

$80,000 for each licensee. 

f. Rare Earth 

The NRC has not allocated any 

budgeted resources to this fee class; 

therefore, the NRC is not assessing an 

annual fee for this fee class in FY 2021. 

g. Materials Users 

The NRC will collect $35.3 million in 

annual fees from materials users 

licensed under 10 CFR parts 30, 40, and 

70, as shown in Table XVI. The FY 2020 

materials users fees are shown for 

comparison purposes. 

TABLE XVI—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR MATERIALS USERS

[Dollars in millions] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 final FY 2021 final 

Total budgeted resources for licensees not regulated by Agreement States ......................................................... $33.7 $35.1 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥1.0 ¥1.0 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 32.8 34.1 

Allocated generic transportation .............................................................................................................................. 1.2 1.5 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... 0.0 N/A 

LLW surcharge ........................................................................................................................................................ 0.0 0.1 

Billing adjustments ................................................................................................................................................... 0.1 ¥0.4 

Total required annual fee recovery .................................................................................................................. $34.1 $35.3 

The formula for calculating 10 CFR 

part 171 annual fees for the various 

categories of materials users is described 

in detail in the work papers. Generally, 

the calculation results in a single annual 

fee that includes 10 CFR part 170 costs, 

such as amendments, renewals, 

inspections, and other licensing actions 

specific to individual fee categories. 

The total annual fee recovery of $35.3 

million for FY 2021 shown in Table XVI 

consists of $27.6 million for general 

costs and $7.7 million for inspection 

costs. To equitably and fairly allocate 

the $35.3 million required to be 

collected among approximately 2,500 

diverse materials users licensees, the 

NRC continues to calculate the annual 

fees for each fee category within this 

class based on the 10 CFR part 170 

application fees and estimated 

inspection costs for each fee category. 

Because the application fees and 

inspection costs are indicative of the 

complexity of the materials license, this 

approach provides a proxy for allocating 

the generic and other regulatory costs to 

the diverse fee categories. This fee 

calculation method also considers the 

inspection frequency (priority), which is 

indicative of the safety risk and 

resulting regulatory costs associated 

with the categories of licenses. 

In comparison to FY 2020, annual fees 

are decreasing for 42 fee categories 

within the materials users fee class to 

reflect changes as a result of the biennial 

review of fees, which included an 

examination of the average professional 

hours for licensing and oversight 

activities. In addition, annual fees are 

increasing for 11 fee categories within 

the materials users fee class due to the 

following: (1) An increase in the fullycosted FTE rate compared to FY 2020; 

(2) an increase in the budgeted 

resources for contract costs due to a 

reduction in the utilization of prior-year 

unobligated carryover funding 

compared to FY 2020; (3) the 

realignment of budgeted resources that 

supports contract funding for general 

license tracking, the materials event 

database, and rulemaking information 

technology activities; (4) changes as a 

result of the biennial review of fees, 

which included an examination of the 

average professional hours for licensing 

and oversight activities; and (5) an 


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increase in generic transportation costs 

for materials users. 

A constant multiplier is established to 

recover the total general costs (including 

allocated generic transportation costs) of 

$27.6 million. To derive the constant 

multiplier, the general cost amount is 

divided by the sum of all fee categories 

(application fee plus the inspection fee 

divided by inspection priority) then 

multiplied by the number of licensees. 

This calculation results in a constant 

multiplier of 1.0 for FY 2021. The 

average inspection cost is the average 

inspection hours for each fee category 

multiplied by the professional hourly 

rate of $288. The inspection priority is 

the interval between routine 

inspections, expressed in years. The 

inspection multiplier is established in 

order to recover the $7.7 million in 

inspection costs. To derive the 

inspection multiplier, the inspection 

costs amount is divided by the sum of 

all fee categories (inspection fee divided 

by inspection priority) then multiplied 

by the number of licensees. This 

calculation results in an inspection 

multiplier of 1.43 for FY 2021. The 

unique category costs are any special 

costs that the NRC has budgeted for a 

specific category of licenses. Please see 

the work papers for more detail about 

this classification. 

The annual fee being assessed to each 

licensee also takes into account a share 

of approximately $0.087 million in LLW 

surcharge costs allocated to the 

materials users fee class (see Table IV, 

‘‘Allocation of LLW Surcharge, FY 

2021,’’ in Section II, ‘‘Discussion,’’ of 

this document). The annual fee for each 

fee category is shown in the revision to 

§ 171.16(d). 

h. Transportation 

The NRC will collect $1.4 million in 

annual fees to recover generic 

transportation budgeted resources in FY 

2021, as shown in Table XVII. The FY 

2020 fees are shown for comparison 

purposes. 

TABLE XVII—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR TRANSPORTATION

[Dollars in millions] 

Summary fee calculations FY 2020 final FY 2021 final 

Total budgeted resources ........................................................................................................................................ $7.2 $8.3 

Less estimated 10 CFR part 170 receipts .............................................................................................................. ¥2.8 ¥2.3 

Net 10 CFR part 171 resources ....................................................................................................................... 4.4 5.9 

Less generic transportation resources .................................................................................................................... ¥3.4 ¥4.5 

Fee-relief adjustment ............................................................................................................................................... 0.0 N/A 

Billing adjustments ................................................................................................................................................... 0.0 ¥0.1 

Total required annual fee recovery .................................................................................................................. $1.0 $1.4 

In comparison to FY 2020, the annual 

fee for the transportation fee class is 

increasing primarily due to the 

following: (1) The decline in 10 CFR 

part 170 estimated billings related to 

delays in new amendment packages; 

and (2) an increase in the budgeted 

resources for contract costs due to a 

reduction in the utilization of prior-year 

unobligated carryover funding 

compared to FY 2020, an increase in the 

number and complexities of 

transportation package applications as a 

result of an increase in the number of 

power reactors in decommissioning, and 

the expanded use of accident tolerant 

fuels. The increase in the annual fee is 

partially offset by an approximate $0.1 

million 10 CFR part 171 billing 

adjustment that was included in the 

transportation fee class calculation due 

to the deferral of annual fees and fees 

for services due to the COVID–19 

pandemic. 

Consistent with the policy established 

in the NRC’s FY 2006 final fee rule (71 

FR 30721; May 30, 2006), the NRC 

recovers generic transportation costs 

unrelated to DOE by including those 

costs in the annual fees for licensee fee 

classes. The NRC continues to assess a 

separate annual fee under § 171.16, fee 

category 18.A., for DOE transportation 

activities. The amount of the allocated 

generic resources is calculated by 

multiplying the percentage of total CoCs 

used by each fee class (and DOE) by the 

total generic transportation resources to 

be recovered. 

This resource distribution to the 

licensee fee classes and DOE is shown 

in Table XVIII. Note that for the nonpower production or utilization 

facilities fee class, the NRC allocates the 

distribution to only those licensees that 

are subject to annual fees. Although five 

CoCs benefit the entire non-power 

production or utilization facilities fee 

class, only 4 out of 31 non-power 

production or utilization facilities 

licensees are subject to annual fees. 

Consequently, the number of CoCs used 

to determine the proportion of generic 

transportation resources allocated to 

annual fees for the non-power 

production or utilization facilities fee 

class has been adjusted to 0.7 so these 

licensees are charged a fair and 

equitable portion of the total fees (see 

the work papers). 

TABLE XVIII—DISTRIBUTION OF TRANSPORTATION RESOURCES, FY 2021 

[Dollars in millions] 

Licensee fee class/DOE 

Number 

of CoCs 

benefiting 

fee class 

or DOE 

Percentage of 

total CoCs 

Allocated 

generic 

transportation 

resources 

Materials Users ............................................................................................................................ 23.0 25.9 1.5 

Operating Power Reactors .......................................................................................................... 5.0 5.6 0.3 

Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning .......................................................................... 16.0 18.0 1.1 

Non-Power Production or Utilization Facilities ............................................................................ 0.7 0.7 0.0 

Fuel Facilities ............................................................................................................................... 23.0 25.9 1.5 

Sub-Total of Generic Transportation Resources ......................................................................... 67.7 76.3 4.5 


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TABLE XVIII—DISTRIBUTION OF TRANSPORTATION RESOURCES, FY 2021—Continued 

[Dollars in millions] 

Licensee fee class/DOE 

Number 

of CoCs 

benefiting 

fee class 

or DOE 

Percentage of 

total CoCs 

Allocated 

generic 

transportation 

resources 

DOE ............................................................................................................................................. 21.0 23.7 1.4 

Total ...................................................................................................................................... 88.7 100.0 5.9 

The NRC assesses an annual fee to 

DOE based on the 10 CFR part 71 CoCs 

it holds. The NRC, therefore, does not 

allocate these DOE-related resources to 

other licensees’ annual fees because 

these resources specifically support 

DOE. 

FY 2021—Policy Changes 

The NRC is making two policy 

changes for FY 2021: 

Process for Disputing Errors in Invoices 

for Service Fees 

Section 102(d)(3) of NEIMA requires 

the NRC to ‘‘modify regulations to 

ensure fair and appropriate processes to 

provide licensees and applicants an 

opportunity to efficiently dispute or 

otherwise seek review and correction of 

errors in invoices’’ for service fees. The 

NRC is implementing requirements for a 

standard method for licensees and 

applicants to efficiently dispute or seek 

review and correction of errors in 

invoices. The process being 

implemented is illustrated in the 

process map, ‘‘NRC Form 529, 

Processing Dispute of Fees-For-Service 

Charges’’ (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML20311A159). This process follows 

the established method for licensees and 

applicants to submit requests for the 

review of fees assessed under 10 CFR 

part 170 (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML20104C055). The NRC Form 529 will 

be available in the agency’s eBilling 

system and on the agency’s public 

website, and can be found under 

ADAMS Accession No. ML20339A673. 

Standard use of an NRC form and 

amendments to the current regulations 

in § 15.31 will increase efficiency by 

providing the licensees and applicants 

with clear guidelines and expectations 

for submitting a fee dispute. It also 

eliminates ambiguity regarding the 

appropriate information needed for the 

NRC to consider and make a 

determination on a fee dispute. 

In response to NEIMA’s requirement 

that the NRC modify its regulations to 

provide licensees and applicants an 

opportunity to efficiently dispute or 

otherwise seek review and correction of 

errors in service fee invoices, the NRC 

is revising its regulations. Specifically 

the NRC is revising § 15.31, ‘‘Disputed 

debts,’’ with conforming amendments in 

§§ 15.37, ‘‘Interest, penalties, and 

administrative costs,’’ and 15.53, 

‘‘Reasons for suspending collection 

action,’’ and changing the heading for 

§ 170.51, ‘‘Right to review and appeal of 

prescribed fees,’’ to ‘‘Right to dispute 

assessed fees.’’ The NRC is also adding 

a new section, § 171.26, ‘‘Right to 

dispute assessed fees,’’ to 10 CFR part 

171. These changes outline the 

interactions between the submitter and 

the NRC. The process will enhance 

understanding of the dispute process by 

setting out the process for submitting a 

fee dispute, the stages of the 

decisionmaking process while the 

dispute is under review, and the manner 

by which the NRC will notify a debtor 

after it makes a final determination on 

a dispute. Additionally, these 

amendments provide consistent 

terminology to differentiate fee disputes 

under 10 CFR part 15 from fee 

exemptions under 10 CFR parts 170 and 

171. 

Assessment of Annual Fees for Future 

10 CFR Part 50 Non-Power Production 

or Utilization Facility Licensees and for 

Small Modular Reactor Licensees 

The NRC is amending § 171.15(a) so 

that the assessment of annual fees 

commences after future non-power 

production or utilization facility (NPUF) 

licensees have successfully completed 

startup testing and have provided 

written notification to the NRC. In 

addition, the NRC is renaming the 

‘‘research and test reactors’’ fee class the 

‘‘non-power production or utilization 

facilities’’ fee class, which would 

include currently operating research 

and test reactors and future NPUFs, 

such as non-reactor NPUF technologies. 

Finally, the NRC is amending 

§ 171.15(e) so that the assessment of 

annual fees for a SMR licensee 

commences after the successful 

completion of power ascension testing 

and the licensee provides written 

notification to the NRC. These policy 

changes are consistent with the FY 2020 

final fee rule (85 FR 37250; June 19, 

2020) that amended the timing of the 

assessment of annual fees for future 10 

CFR part 50 power reactors and 10 CFR 

part 52 COL holders. 

Currently, § 171.15(a) requires the 

NRC to assess annual fees to a test or 

research reactor (excluding test or 

research reactors exempted under 

§ 171.11(b)) when the NRC authorizes 

the licensee to use nuclear materials 

(i.e., begin operating the reactor in 

accordance with its license). Prior to 

this final rule, the NRC had not 

established a policy for assessing 10 

CFR part 171 annual fees to future nonreactor NPUF licensees (e.g., SHINE); at 

this time, the NRC currently assesses 

only 10 CFR part 170 service fees to 

prospective applicants for 

preapplication activities, construction 

permit holders (i.e., SHINE and 

Northwest Medical Isotopes, LLC 

(NWMI)) and applicants for operating 

licenses (i.e., SHINE) for commercial 

NPUFs, as well as certain operating nonpower production or utilization 

facilities not exempted under § 170.11. 

While the NRC’s fee regulations do not 

include a fee class for future non-reactor 

NPUF licensees, the NRC historically 

has included budgeted resources for 

NWMI and SHINE within the research 

and test reactor fee class. The budgeted 

resources for NWMI and SHINE not 

recovered in 10 CFR part 170 service 

fees previously were included in feerelief. These resources for the 

development of a medical isotope 

production infrastructure are now 

excluded from the fee-recovery 

requirement under NEIMA as a fee-relief 

activity identified by the Commission. 

In anticipation that the NRC may 

decide to issue an operating license in 

the future, the NRC is revising its 

regulations to provide for the 

assessment of annual fees to NPUFs 

under § 171.15(a) when they have 

notified the NRC of the successful 

completion of startup testing. This final 

rule uses the term ‘‘non-power 

production or utilization facility’’ to 

have the same meaning as the definition 

used in SECY–19–0062, ‘‘Final Rule: 


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4The NPUF draft final rule would also revise the 

definition of research reactor in §§ 170.3 and 171.5 

to conform to other definitions in 10 CFR chapter 

I. The NRC is not proposing to change the definition 

of Research reactor in the specific exemption for 

federally-owned and State-owned research reactors 

in § 170.11(a)(9) or § 171.11(b)(2). The current 

definition in § 171.11(b)(2) is based on the language 

of OBRA–90. Further, a substantively similar 

definition of research reactor was included in the 

provisions of NEIMA that relate to the NRC’s fee 

recovery structure. Changing the definition of 

research reactor in § 171.11(b)(2) would therefore 

be inconsistent with NEIMA. 

Non-power Production or Utilization 

Facility License Renewal’’ (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML18031A000), dated 

June 17, 2019.4 The definition includes 

production or utilization facilities, 

licensed under § 50.21(a) or (c), or 

§ 50.22, as applicable, that are not 

nuclear power reactors or production 

facilities within the meaning of 

paragraphs (1) and (2) of § 50.2, which 

defines ‘‘production facility.’’ This 

definition includes currently operating 

and future research and test reactors and 

proposed medical radioisotope facilities 

that would be licensed under 10 CFR 

part 50. As such, non-reactor NPUF 

licensees, such as SHINE, would be 

included in the same annual fee class as 

currently operating research and test 

reactors that pay 10 CFR part 171 

annual fees. This approach is consistent 

with the current approach of combining 

limited numbers of similar facilities into 

a single annual fee category, where ‘‘test 

reactors’’ (of which only one is currently 

operational) are assessed the same 10 

CFR part 171 annual fees as ‘‘research 

reactors.’’ In addition, the NRC expects 

that NPUF facilities will request that a 

single license under 10 CFR part 50 

authorize the operation of multiple 

utilization and/or production facilities. 

Based on the number of facilities 

authorized to operate under a single 

license, the number of staff hours 

dedicated to licensing and oversight 

activities for these facilities is not 

expected to differ significantly 

compared to those for the current 

operating fleet of NPUFs. Furthermore, 

stakeholders have previously supported 

this approach regarding the assessment 

of 10 CFR part 171 annual fees for future 

NPUFs. Therefore, a single annual fee 

would be appropriate even where an 

NPUF licensee has multiple facilities 

operating under a single 10 CFR part 50 

license. 

SMR licenses can be issued under 10 

CFR part 50 or 52. Currently, § 171.15 

requires the NRC to assess annual fees 

to a 10 CFR part 50 SMR licensee upon 

issuance of an operating license, or to a 

10 CFR part 52 SMR COL holder after 

the Commission has made the finding 

under § 52.103(g) for all licenses held 

for an SMR site. The annual fee would 

be determined using the cumulative 

licensed thermal power rating of all 

SMR units and the bundled unit 

concept. For a given site, the use of the 

bundled unit concept is independent of 

the number of SMR plants, the number 

of SMR licenses issued, and the 

sequencing of the SMR licenses that 

have been issued. There are currently no 

operating SMRs; therefore, the NRC has 

not yet assessed an annual fee for this 

type of licensee. 

The NRC recognizes that, after the 

issuance of an operating license under 

10 CFR part 50 for NPUFs and SMRs, or 

a COL and § 52.103(g) finding under 10 

CFR part 52 for SMRs, fuel or targets (or 

both) must be loaded and startup testing 

(for NPUFs) and power ascension 

testing (for SMRs) must be completed 

before the facility begins full licensed 

operation. As discussed in the statement 

of considerations for the FY 2020 final 

fee rule, 10 CFR part 52 COLs for power 

reactors contain a standard license 

condition that requires the submittal of 

written notification to the NRC upon 

successful completion of power 

ascension testing. Therefore, the NRC 

will incorporate a similar license 

condition into all future 10 CFR part 50 

operating licenses for NPUFs and SMRs, 

and 10 CFR part 52 COLs for SMRs to 

ensure that the licensee will promptly 

notify the NRC of the successful 

completion of startup testing or power 

ascension testing. The annual fee 

assessment for future NPUFs and SMR 

licenses under 10 CFR part 50, and 

SMRs under 10 CFR part 52, will begin 

on the date of the licensee’s written 

notification of the successful 

completion of startup testing or power 

ascension testing. 

Accordingly, the NRC is amending 

§ 171.15(a) and (e) so that annual fees 

commence upon written notification to 

the NRC of successful completion of 

startup testing and power ascension 

testing, rather than upon issuance of the 

operating license for 10 CFR part 50 

NPUFs and SMRs, or issuance of the 

§ 52.103(g) finding for 10 CFR part 52 

COL holders for SMRs, but upon written 

notification to the NRC of successful 

completion of startup testing and/or 

power ascension testing. The NRC finds 

this change to 10 CFR part 171 to be 

reasonable, fair, and equitable, and to be 

supported by the public comments the 

NRC received on PRM–171–1, which 

was submitted by Dr. Michael D. Meier 

on behalf of the Southern Nuclear 

Operating Company (ADAMS Accession 

No. ML19081A015), and on the FY 2020 

proposed fee rule (85 FR 9328; February 

18, 2020). The NRC is also making 

conforming changes by revising § 170.3, 

‘‘Definitions,’’ § 171.3, ‘‘Scope,’’ § 171.5, 

‘‘Definitions,’’ and § 171.17, 

‘‘Proration.’’ 

FY 2021—Administrative Changes 

The NRC is making seven 

administrative changes: 

1. Change Small Entity Fees. 

As stated in SECY–08–0174, ‘‘Fiscal 

Year 2009 Proposed Fee Rule and 

Advance Rulemaking for GridAppropriate Reactor Fees,’’ dated 

November 7, 2008 (ADAMS Accession 

No. ML083120518), the NRC 

determined that the maximum small 

entity fee should be adjusted biennially 

using a fixed percentage of 39 percent 

applied to the prior two-year weighted 

average of materials users’ fees for all 

fee categories that have small entity 

licensees. The 39 percent was based on 

the small entity annual fee for FY 2005, 

which was the first year the NRC was 

required to recover only 90 percent of 

its budget authority. This methodology 

remains in place; however, the NRC 

does also consider whether or not 

implementing an increase will have a 

disproportionate impact on the NRC’s 

small entity licensees when compared 

to other licensees. Therefore, the 

increase for the upper and lower tier 

fees were capped at a 21 percent 

increase. 

For the FY 2021 proposed fee rule (86 

FR 10459; February 22, 2021), the NRC 

conducted a biennial review of small 

entity fees to determine whether the 

NRC should change those fees. The NRC 

used the fee methodology, developed in 

FY 2009, which applies a fixed 

percentage of 39 percent to the prior 

two-year weighted average of materials 

users’ fees, when performing its biennial 

review. Based on this methodology and 

as a result of the FY 2021 biennial 

review, the NRC is increasing the upper 

tier small entity fee from $4,500 to 

$4,900 and increasing the lower tier fee 

from $900 to $1,000. This constitutes a 

9 percent and 11 percent increase, 

respectively. The NRC believes these 

fees are reasonable and provide relief to 

small entities, while at the same time 

recovering from those licensees some of 

the NRC’s costs for activities that benefit 

them. 

2. Amend § 170.1, ‘‘Purpose,’’ to 

change the reference to the Independent 

Offices Appropriation Act, 1952. 

The NRC is amending § 170.1 to 

replace the ‘‘of’’ after Independent 

Offices Appropriation Act with a 

comma to make the reference to the 

legislation consistent with references in 

other NRC contexts. 

3. Amend § 170.3, ‘‘Definitions,’’ to 

eliminate definitions for ‘‘Balance of 

plants,’’ ‘‘Nuclear Steam Supply 


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System,’’ and ‘‘Reference systems 

concept’’. 

The NRC is amending § 170.3 to 

eliminate definitions for ‘‘Balance of 

plants,’’ ‘‘Nuclear Steam Supply 

System,’’ and ‘‘Reference systems 

concept.’’ These definitions are no 

longer applicable in 10 CFR part 170. 

These definitions were added in the FY 

1977 final fee rule (43 FR 7210; March 

23, 1978) to resolve issues concerning 

assessing fees for balance of plant 

reviews, related to a previous fee 

category (category A.4.b in the table at 

§ 170.21 for standardized designreference systems concept), that was not 

subject to full cost recovery. In the FY 

1991 final fee rule, the NRC amended 10 

CFR parts 52 and 170 to assess licensing 

fees for the review of standardized 

reactor designs, which would be subject 

to full cost recovery (56 FR 31472; July 

10, 1991). This amendment to eliminate 

these definitions will not impact the 

NRC’s assessment of 10 CFR part 170 

fees for service. 

4. Remove footnote 6 to the table in 

§ 170.21, and footnote 12 to the table in 

§ 170.31. 

The NRC is removing footnote 6 to the 

table in § 170.21 and footnote 12 to the 

table in § 170.31 because (1) Congress 

has not enacted legislation that would 

exclude import and export activities 

from the fee-recoverable budget in FY 

2021; and (2) in accordance with 

NEIMA, for FY 2021, the NRC identified 

international activities as fee-relief 

activities, but it did not include 

resources for import and export 

licensing. The NRC, therefore, will 

charge fees for import and export 

licensing actions. 

5. Amend § 171.5, ‘‘Definitions,’’ to 

replace the reference in ‘‘Budget 

authority’’. 

The NRC is amending the definition 

of ‘‘budget authority’’ to replace the 

reference to Public Law 101–508 (i.e., 

OBRA–90) with a reference to Public 

Law 115–439 (i.e., NEIMA). Effective 

October 1, 2020, NEIMA repealed 

Section 6101 of OBRA–90 and put in 

place a revised fee-recovery framework, 

requiring the NRC to recover, to the 

maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its annual 

budget, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities. 

6. Amend § 171.11(c), ‘‘Exemptions’’. 

The NRC is revising § 171.11(c) to 

change the ‘‘or’’ in the section to ‘‘and.’’ 

This change accurately reflects that even 

when an exemption is ‘‘in the public 

interest,’’ the NRC cannot grant the 

exemption unless it is ‘‘authorized by 

law.’’ This change also harmonizes 

§ 171.11(c) with § 170.11(b), which uses 

‘‘and.’’ This change does not alter the 

NRC’s fee exemption policy. 

7. Technical Correction. 

The NRC is making a technical 

correction to the program codes 

referenced in §§ 170.31 and 171.16. 

Under §§ 170.31 and 171.16, the NRC is 

removing program code 03252 since it is 

no longer in use for fee category 3(I). 

Under § 171.16, the NRC is replacing the 

program codes referenced for fee 

category 3(A)(1) with 04010, 04012, and 

04014 to reflect the correct program 

codes that should be cited for this fee 

category. Currently, 3(A)(1) references 

program codes 03211, 03212 and 03213. 

The NRC is also removing program 

03235 referenced in fee category 4(A) 

since it is used as a secondary program 

code and no fees are charged to this 

code. 

Update on the Fees Transformation 

Initiative 

In the staff requirements 

memorandum (SRM), dated October 19, 

2016 (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML16293A902), for SECY–16–0097, 

‘‘Fee Setting Improvements and Fiscal 

Year 2017 Proposed Fee Rule’’ (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML16194A365), the 

Commission directed the staff to 

accelerate its process improvements for 

setting fees. In addition, the 

Commission directed the staff to begin 

the fees transformation activities listed 

in SECY–16–0097 as ‘‘Process Changes 

Recommended for Future 

Consideration—FY 2018 and Beyond.’’ 

The NRC has completed 39 of the 40 

fees transformation activities. 

The one fees transformation activity 

yet to be completed is the rulemaking to 

update the NRC’s small business size 

standards in § 2.810, ‘‘NRC size 

standards.’’ In FY 2020, the NRC 

conducted a survey of materials 

licensees to collect relevant data to help 

determine the need for changes to the 

NRC’s small business size standards in 

§ 2.810. In addition, the NRC considered 

changes in the small business size 

standards published by the Small 

Business Administration (SBA). On 

December 7, 2020, the staff submitted 

SECY–20–0111, ‘‘Rulemaking Plan to 

Amend the Receipts-Based NRC Size 

Standards,’’ to the Commission 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML20268B327) 

with the staff’s recommendations for 

amending the NRC’s receipts-based size 

standards. In the SRM for SECY–20– 

0111 (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML21029A186), the Commission 

approved the staff’s recommendation to 

initiate a rulemaking to amend the 

NRC’s small business size standards in 

§§ 2.810 and 171.16(c) to comply with 

the Small Business Runway Extension 

Act of 2018 (Runway Act) and related 

SBA regulations and to reflect inflation 

adjustments. The NRC is currently in 

the process of developing the proposed 

rule. The NRC will continue to include 

updates on this rulemaking activity 

within the FY 2021 and FY 2022 fee 

rules to ensure that affected licensees 

are adequately informed. The public can 

track all NRC rulemaking activities, 

including the rulemaking on the NRC’s 

size standards, on the NRC’s 

Rulemaking Tracking and Reporting 

system at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/rulemakingruleforum/active/RuleIndex.html, or by 

Docket ID NRC–2014–0264 at http://

www.regulations.gov. 

For more information, see the fees 

transformation accomplishments 

schedule, located on the NRC’s license 

fees web page at: https://www.nrc.gov/ 

about-nrc/regulatory/licensing/feestransformation-accomplishments.html. 

III. Public Comment Analysis 

Overview of Public Comments 

The NRC published a proposed rule 

on February 22, 2021 (86 FR 10459), and 

requested public comment on its 

proposed revisions to 10 CFR parts 15, 

170, and 171. By the close of the 

comment period, the NRC received eight 

written comment submissions on the FY 

2021 proposed rule. In general, the 

commenters were supportive of the 

specific proposed regulatory changes. 

Some commenters expressed concerns 

about broader fee-policy issues related 

to transparency, the overall size of the 

NRC’s budget, fairness of fees, and 

budget formulation. Some commenters’ 

concerns were outside the scope of the 

fee rule. 

The commenters are listed in Table 

XIX. 

TABLE XIX—FY 2021 PROPOSED FEE RULE COMMENTER SUBMISSIONS

Commenter Affiliation ADAMS 

accession No. 

Andrew Straw ............................................ N/A ............................................................................................................................... ML21064A398. 

M. Keller .................................................... Hybrid Power Technologies LLC ................................................................................ ML21064A399 


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TABLE XIX—FY 2021 PROPOSED FEE RULE COMMENTER SUBMISSIONS—Continued 

Commenter Affiliation ADAMS 

accession No. 

Matthew Ostdiek ........................................ Rendezvous Engineering, P.C. (RE) .......................................................................... ML21077A246 

Gary Peters ............................................... Framatome .................................................................................................................. ML21082A394 

Jennifer Uhle ............................................. Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) .................................................................................... ML21084A747 

Cheryl Gayheart ........................................ Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC) ............................................................ ML21084A747 

Bradley Fewell ........................................... Exelon Generation Company (Exelon) ....................................................................... ML21085A680 

Anonymous ................................................ N/A ............................................................................................................................... ML21090A120 

Information about obtaining the 

complete text of the comment 

submissions is available in Section XIV, 

‘‘Availability of Documents,’’ of this 

document. 

IV. Public Comments and NRC 

Responses 

The NRC has carefully considered the 

public comments received on the 

proposed rule. The comments have been 

organized by topic. Comments from a 

single commenter have been quoted to 

ensure accuracy; brackets within those 

comments are used to show changes 

that have been made to the quoted 

comments. The NRC responses are 

preceded by a short summary of the 

issues raised by the commenters. 

A. Overhead Costs 

Comment: ‘‘The NRC fees are wildly 

excessive relative to private industry. 

The NRC fee is more than engineering 

firm senior executives would charge a 

client. There is simply no question that 

the NRC bureaucracy is vast and 

requires an extremely high overhead 

cost be attached to the direct cost 

associated with NRC staff carrying out 

review activities. The NRC fee creates a 

yearly charge that is more than the 

salary of the U.S. president. As long as 

significantly excessive fees are charged, 

there appears to be no incentive for the 

NRC to reduce the overhead bloat, the 

proposed fee should be reduced by at 

least 5% every year until the fee is more 

similar to that of private industry doing 

similar work.’’ (M. Keller) 

Response: The NRC is a Federal 

agency tasked with protecting the health 

and safety of the public and the 

common defense and security, and there 

is no equivalent role found in private 

industry. Unlike private industry, all 

fees that the NRC assesses to applicants 

and licensees must conform to statutory 

requirements under the IOAA and 

NEIMA. In other words, the fees that the 

NRC charges are based in part on 

requirements that would not be 

reflected in the fees charged by private 

engineering firms. 

The IOAA prescribes the framework 

for charging fees for government 

services. Under the IOAA, fees must be 

fair and based on the costs to the 

Government and value of the service to 

the recipient. Additionally, under 

NEIMA, the NRC is required to recover 

through fees, to the maximum extent 

practicable, approximately 100 percent 

of its annual budget authority, less the 

budget authority for excluded activities. 

Under NEIMA the NRC must also use its 

IOAA authority first to collect 10 CFR 

part 170 service fees for NRC work that 

provides specific benefits to identifiable 

recipients, such as licensing activities, 

inspections, and special projects. 

To comply with these laws, the NRC 

establishes a professional hourly rate for 

its work. Consistent with the IOAA, the 

professional hourly rate is derived by 

adding budgeted resources for: (1) 

Mission-direct program salaries and 

benefits; (2) mission-indirect program 

support; and (3) agency support, which 

includes corporate support and the 

Inspector General. The NRC then 

subtracts certain offsetting receipts and 

divides this total by the mission-direct 

FTE converted to hours (the missiondirect FTE converted to hours is the 

product of the mission-direct FTE 

multiplied by the estimated annual 

mission-direct FTE productive hours). 

The only budgeted resources excluded 

from the professional hourly rate are 

those for contract activities related to 

mission-direct contract resources, which 

are generally billed to licensees 

separately. Because the NRC’s fee 

recovery under the IOAA (10 CFR part 

170) will not equal 100 percent of the 

agency’s total budget authority for the 

fiscal year (less the budget authority for 

excluded activities), the NRC also 

assesses annual fees under 10 CFR part 

171 to recover the remaining amount 

necessary to comply with NEIMA. 

No change was made to the final rule 

in response to this comment. 

B. Operating Power Reactors Decline in 

the Budget and 10 CFR Part 170 

Estimated Billings 

Comment: ‘‘Over the past five years, 

Part 170 service fee collections have 

decreased by over 20%. This reduction 

is even more dramatic for the operating 

plant fee class from which over 85% of 

service fees are collected, where Part 

170 service fee collections have 

decreased by 45%. While there has been 

a reduction in the NRC operating plant 

budget during this time, the reduction 

has not kept pace with the reduction in 

operating plant service fee collections. 

As a result, a greater percentage of the 

budget is required to be recovered 

through annual fees. The percentage of 

the operating plant budget that is 

derived from annual fees (currently at 

73%) continues to increase; up from 

62% in FY 2016. As noted in the fee 

rule notices and associated work papers, 

the reductions in service fee collections 

in recent years have been attributable, in 

part, to plant closures. These closures 

were announced well in advance and 

should have enabled adjustments to be 

made to properly align the NRC budget 

to reflect smaller projected workloads. 

With a number of announced nuclear 

plant closures in FY 2022 and 

subsequent years, the downward trend 

in Part 170 service fee collections will 

continue. It is not realistic to expect a 

decreasing number of operating plants 

to support a budget that, on a per plant 

basis, is appreciably increasing. The 

anticipated reduction in Part 170 service 

fee collections places a strong obligation 

on the NRC to ensure that staffing levels 

and budgets are properly aligned to 

reflect smaller projected workloads. The 

NRC should take all necessary steps to 

continue and expedite its efficiency 

efforts. Given the maturity of the U.S. 

nuclear fleet, in combination with its 

high level of operational performance 

and a demonstrated level of safety, 

timely reductions in unnecessary 

regulatory burden are appropriate. We 

are encouraged by efforts underway to 

transform NRC into a modern riskinformed regulator. It is imperative that 

these efforts continue.’’ (NEI) 

Response: The relationship between 

10 CFR part 170 (service fees) relative to 

10 CFR part 171 (annual fees) is 

workload-driven. The activities covered 

by 10 CFR part 171 annual fees are 

necessary for the NRC to accomplish its 

safety and security mission as described 

and justified in the CBJ. The amount of 


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service fees collected under 10 CFR part 

170, on the other hand, depends on 

several factors, including the 

professional hourly rate, licensee and 

applicant decisions to pursue licensing 

actions, and the number of hours 

necessary to resolve any licensing 

actions. 

Since FY 2016, the fee class budget 

for operating power reactors has 

decreased from $750.4 million in FY 

2016 to $611.8 million in FY 2021. This 

represents a reduction of $138.6 million, 

or approximately 18 percent, as a result 

of the decreasing number of nuclear 

power reactor licensees, application 

delays and withdrawals, fewer license 

amendment requests being submitted, 

efficiencies gained with the merger of 

the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 

and the Office of New Reactors, and 

long-term project completions. Over this 

same period, the 10 CFR part 170 

estimated billings for the operating 

power reactors fee class have declined 

from $287.8 million in FY 2016 to 

$157.0 million in FY 2021, which 

represents a decline of $130.8 million, 

or approximately 45 percent. As 

compared to FY 2016, the operating 

power reactors fee class annual fee has 

declined from $465.9 million in FY 

2016 to $446.8 million in FY 2021, 

which represents a decrease of $19.1 

million, or approximately 4 percent. 

These changes in the budgetary 

resources and the 10 CFR part 170 

estimated billings, as well as other 

adjustments (including billing 

adjustments, generic transportation, and 

the LLW surcharge) and the elimination 

of the fee-relief surcharge or credit in FY 

2021, alter the amount of feerecoverable budgeted resources that are 

required to be collected through 10 CFR 

part 171 annual fees from the operating 

power reactors fee class. 

With respect to expediting efficiency 

efforts, the NRC continues to review its 

budget and pursue additional efficiency 

improvements related to budget 

formulation such as pursuing the use of 

analytical tools (e.g., dashboards), to 

help the NRC analyze and report data 

quicker and more consistently and to 

support a more efficient and riskinformed budget formulation process. 

When formulating the budget, the NRC 

takes into consideration: (1) Projected 

operating power plant closures; (2) 

workload forecasting, including 

workload drivers, analysis of historical 

data and trends, and communication 

with stakeholders; (3) the estimated 

level of effort for regulatory activities 

and yearly recurring activities; and (4) 

other external factors that may impact 

how the NRC meets its statutory 

responsibilities as the industry changes. 

However, the NRC budget is not linearly 

proportional to the size of the operating 

power reactor fleet, as there is a cost for 

the infrastructure that must be 

maintained independent of the number 

of operating power reactors in the fleet. 

The NRC is required by NEIMA to 

recover, to the maximum extent 

practicable, approximately 100 percent 

of its annual budget authority, less the 

budget authority for excluded activities. 

NEIMA also caps the per-licensee 

annual fee for operating reactors, to the 

maximum extent practicable, at the FY 

2015 annual fee amount as adjusted for 

inflation. The NRC continues to 

evaluate resource requirements and 

adjustments that can be made to refine 

the operating power reactors budget. 

Finally, the NRC remains committed 

to providing enhanced transparency 

throughout the development of the 

annual fee rule and supporting work 

papers. 

No changes were made to this final 

rule as a result of these comments. 

Comment: ‘‘The FY 2021 Proposed 

Fee Rule continues to shift the burden 

created by overestimating Part 170 fee 

collections reflected in the NRC’s 

appropriated budget to the recovery of 

Part 171 annual fees. While Exelon 

appreciates the challenge of precisely 

estimating the amount of Part 170 fees 

that will be recovered two years in 

advance due to the budget cycle, we 

note that this is precisely the problem 

that NEIMA intended to address. The 

Conference Report for NEIMA describes 

exactly this challenge in explaining the 

basis for the law: ‘‘Several problems 

arise from [the OBRA–90] structure. If 

the NRC overestimates the amount of 

revenue it expect [sic] to collect under 

Part 170, it must recover the resulting 

revenue shortfall through Part 171 fees 

in order to meet the OBRA–90 mandate 

for 90 percent fee recovery.’’ The 

Congress noted that this situation 

‘‘highlight[s] the need for the NRC to 

budget more accurately and recover fees 

for work that is actually conducted.’’ It 

is clear, therefore, that Congress 

designed NEIMA with the existing 

challenges of the budget cycle in mind. 

Notwithstanding Congress’s clear intent 

in this regard, the FY 2021 Proposed Fee 

Rule would continue to shift the 

impacts of Part 170 overbudgeting to 

Part 171 annual fees, which does not 

appear to take advantage of the 

significantly greater flexibilities in 

NEIMA with respect to the portions of 

its appropriated budget that the NRC 

must collect through fees.’’ In addition 

to this comment submission, this 

response addresses similar comments 

made during the March 18, 2021, public 

meeting to discuss the FY 2021 

proposed fee rule. (Exelon) 

Response: The NRC disagrees with the 

commenter’s suggestion that the 

allocation of service fees versus annual 

fees in the FY 2021 proposed fee rule 

might be inconsistent with 

congressional intent underlying NEIMA. 

Under NEIMA, the NRC is still required 

to recover through fees the total 

appropriated budget (with the exception 

of discrete categories of budget 

authority), and to do so through a 

combination of both service fees and 

annual fees. Specifically, NEIMA 

requires the NRC to recover, to the 

maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its total 

budget authority for the fiscal year, less 

the budget authority for excluded 

activities. 

The NRC is fully in compliance with 

NEIMA. The NRC identified fee-relief 

activities in the FY 2021 CBJ (which 

were consistent with the fee-relief 

activities identified in the FY 2020 fee 

rule, with the exception of international 

activities, not including the resources 

for import and export licensing) and the 

FY 2021 final fee rule maintains those 

same fee-relief activities. The 

Congressional report referenced by the 

commenter as support for the 

proposition that NEIMA was intended 

to provide the NRC ‘‘significantly 

greater flexibilities’’ regarding fee 

collection is not a conference report, but 

rather a report issued by the Senate 

Committee on Environment and Public 

Works (Senate Report 115–86). At the 

time when the bill was reported by the 

Senate Committee on Environment and 

Public Works, the bill would have 

limited fee-relief activities to those 

identified in the FY 2015 final fee rule. 

This is inconsistent with the 

commenter’s suggestion that this 

Congressional report reflects an intent 

for NEIMA to provide the NRC with 

greater flexibility in determining what 

portions of the appropriated budget are 

recovered through fees. The 

Congressional report in fact contains 

statements reflecting an intention that 

the NRC, under NEIMA, would collect 

fees based on the agency’s workload, but 

the amount not recovered through fees 

would generally be unaffected. For 

example, the report states that 

‘‘[c]onsistent with current practice, the 

taxpayer continues to pay only for the 

items explicitly outlined in the law as 

appropriated items and the rest of the 

NRC’s budget is to be recovered through 

fees[;] [a]s such, the cost to the taxpayer 

is generally unaffected but the fee 

recovery will be determined by the 

agency’s workload rather than a 

mandated percentage.’’ 


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The FY 2021 CBJ provided the 

agency’s explanation and justification 

for the resources being requested to 

allow the agency to complete its 

mission, and the reason for changes in 

the budget request for the NRC as 

compared to the prior year, at the 

business line and product line levels. 

Appendix C of the FY 2021 CBJ was 

included with the intent to increase 

transparency with stakeholders. The 

NRC developed this estimate based on 

the NRC staff’s allocation of the FY 2021 

budget request to fee classes under 10 

CFR part 170 and allocations within the 

operating power reactors fee class under 

10 CFR part 171, as well as certain data 

assumptions and historical information 

available during the FY 2021 budget 

formulation process. 

Consistent with NEIMA, when 

developing the annual fee rule, the NRC 

had to take into account changes that 

occurred in the two-year interval 

between the development of the FY 

2021 budget request, which began in FY 

2019, and the enactment of the FY 2021 

appropriation in December 2020. As 

part of the development of the annual 

fee rule, the NRC estimates the amount 

of 10 CFR part 170 service fees by each 

fee class by analyzing billing data and 

the actual cost of work under NRC 

contracts that was charged to licensees 

and applicants for the previous four 

quarters. The estimate, therefore, 

reflects any recent changes in the NRC’s 

regulatory activities. 

The FY 2021 proposed rule utilized 

four quarters of the prior year invoice 

data, while the NRC is using a 

combination of two quarters of the prior 

year and two quarters of the current year 

billing data (which is also updated to 

reflect workload changes) for the FY 

2021 final rule. In the FY 2021 proposed 

fee rule, the 10 CFR part 170 estimated 

billings were $157.0 million compared 

to the $188.3 million that was included 

in the FY 2021 CBJ. The decline in 10 

CFR part 170 estimated billings was 

primarily due to: (1) The plant closures 

of Indian Point Unit 3 in April 2021 and 

Duane Arnold in October 2020; (2) the 

completion of construction activities at 

Vogtle Unit 3; (3) the completion of the 

NuScale SMR design certification 

review; and (4) the impact of continued 

travel restrictions and limited on-site 

presence on inspection activities due to 

the COVID–19 pandemic. 

The NRC continues to actively 

evaluate resource requirements to 

address changes that occur between 

budget formulation and execution, and 

to pursue improvements that enhance 

the accuracy of projections used in 

budget formulation. For example, the 

NRC considers projected operating 

power plant closures and other external 

factors when estimating workload 

changes in a manner that allows the 

agency to meet its statutory 

responsibilities as the industry changes. 

The NRC also seeks information from 

licensees and other entities relevant to 

projected workload through public 

meetings and other forms of public 

outreach, to better inform the NRC’s 

budget formulation workload 

assumptions. Ultimately, however, the 

NRC budget is not linearly proportional 

to the size of the operating fleet, as there 

is a cost for the agency infrastructure 

that must be maintained independent of 

the number of operating power reactors 

in the fleet. 

No changes were made to this final 

rule as a result of these comments. 

C. Fee-Relief Adjustment and NEIMA 

Comment: ‘‘In the FY 2021 Proposed 

Fee Rule, the NRC did not make a ‘‘feerelief adjustment’’ that it has made in 

past years on the basis that ‘‘[b]ecause 

NEIMA eliminated the approximately 

90 percent requirement for fee recovery 

and, in turn, the 10 percent limit on feerelief activities, the NRC will no longer 

provide a fee-relief credit or assess a feerelief surcharge as part of the 

calculation of annual fees for each 

licensee fee class.’’ However, nowhere 

in NEIMA itself nor in the legislative 

history did Congress direct the NRC to 

eliminate fee-relief adjustments. NEIMA 

specifically requires the deduction of 

‘‘any fee relief activity, as identified by 

the Commission,’’ which seems on its 

face to provide significant flexibility to 

the Commission to make necessary 

adjustments since ‘‘any fee relief 

activity’’ is not defined in the statute or 

the legislative history. The Proposed Fee 

Rule expressly acknowledges that the 

exclusion of fee relief activities is 

required by NEIMA as part of ‘‘Excluded 

Activities’’ to be excluded from fee 

recovery. But as explained in the 

Proposed Fee Rule, ‘‘[i]n FY 2021, the 

fee-relief activities identified by the 

Commission are consistent with prior 

final fee rules’’ with the exception of 

some international activities. In other 

words, while NEIMA made it possible 

for the NRC to define ‘‘fee relief 

activities’’ in a way that could have 

accounted for Part 170 over-budgeting, 

the Proposed Rule essentially maintains 

the same constraints that existed under 

OBRA–90. This interpretation was not 

mandated by Congress, nor does it 

appear to align with the NRC’s overall 

vision to become a ‘‘modern, riskinformed regulator’’ that values 

innovative approaches to problem 

solving.’’ (Exelon) 

Response: The NRC disagrees with the 

commenter’s suggestion that NEIMA 

allows for the NRC to provide fee-relief 

adjustments that would give licensees a 

possible credit or surcharge like under 

the OBRA–90 framework. NEIMA 

requires the NRC to recover, to the 

maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its total 

budget authority for the fiscal year, less 

the budget authority for excluded 

activities, one of which is fee-relief 

activities as identified by the 

Commission. Under NEIMA the NRC 

must also use its IOAA authority first to 

collect 10 CFR part 170 service fees for 

NRC work that provides specific 

benefits to identifiable recipients, such 

as licensing activities, inspections, and 

special projects. 

Eliminating the fee-relief adjustment 

increases the predictability for licensees 

in forecasting their annual fees. The 

NRC discussed the elimination of the 10 

percent fee-relief credit or surcharge in 

FY 2021 during the FY 2020 proposed 

fee rule public meeting on March 5, 

2020 (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML20077G458), where the agency 

explained how the elimination of the 

credit or surcharge would make a 

licensee’s annual fees more predictable. 

For example, if the FY 2021 fee rule 

had, hypothetically, remained governed 

by OBRA–90 and the 10 percent 

allowance for fee relief specified in 

OBRA–90 applied, there would have 

been a surcharge of $9.9 million to all 

licensees in the FY 2021 fee rule. The 

NRC’s FY 2021 appropriation totaled 

$844.4 million, so a 10 percent 

allowance would have resulted in $81.3 

million for fee-relief activities. However, 

the FY 2021 proposed fee rule and 

supporting work papers illustrate that 

the NRC’s budget for fee-relief activities 

during FY 2021 totaled $91.2 million for 

activities not attributable to an existing 

licensee or class of licensees and 

activities not assessed fees based on 

existing law or Commission policy. This 

would have resulted in an overage of 

$9.9 million if the OBRA–90 framework 

applied. 

In addition, the commenter suggests 

that the NRC should put in fee-relief 

activities (instead of 10 CFR part 171 

annual fees) the budgeted resources that 

were anticipated to be used for 10 CFR 

part 170 work (e.g., licensing and 

oversight regulatory activities), but will 

ultimately not be used for 10 CFR part 

170 work this fiscal year (i.e., the 

differences in the 10 CFR part 170 

estimated billings shown in Appendix C 

of the FY 2021 CBJ compared to the FY 

2021 final fee rule). These resources 

were anticipated to be used for 10 CFR 

part 170 work for the operating power 


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reactors fee class as shown in Appendix 

C of the CBJ, which was developed 

based on the NRC staff’s allocation of 

the FY 2021 budget request to fee 

classes under 10 CFR part 170 and 

allocations within the operating power 

reactors fee class under 10 CFR part 171, 

as well as certain data assumptions and 

historical information that was available 

during the FY 2021 budget formulation 

process. Consistent with NEIMA, when 

developing the annual fee rule, the NRC 

had to take into account changes that 

occurred in the two-year interval 

between the development of the FY 

2021 budget request, which began in FY 

2019, and the enactment of the FY 2021 

appropriation in December 2020. In 

developing the FY 2021 fee rule, the 

NRC estimated the amount of 10 CFR 

part 170 service fees by each fee class 

by analyzing billing data and the actual 

cost of work under NRC contracts that 

was charged to licensees and applicants 

for the previous four quarters. Because 

the NRC’s fee recovery under the IOAA 

(10 CFR part 170) will not equal 100 

percent of the agency’s total budget 

authority for the fiscal year (less the 

budget authority for excluded 

activities), the NRC must assess annual 

fees under 10 CFR part 171 to recover 

the remaining amount necessary to 

comply with NEIMA. NEIMA requires 

the NRC to establish a schedule of 

annual fees that fairly and equitably 

allocates budgeted resources. While 

these resources were anticipated to be 

used for 10 CFR part 170 work for the 

operating power reactors fee class, the 

resources have been shifted to being 

used for work that is recovered through 

10 CFR part 171 because it will benefit 

the operating power reactors fee class. 

Thus, the NRC has appropriately 

included the resources in 10 CFR part 

171 fees for this fee class. 

Fee-relief activities identified by the 

Commission fall into two categories: (1) 

Activities not attributable to an existing 

licensee or class of licensees, and (2) 

activities not assessed 10 CFR part 170 

or 171 fees based on existing law or 

Commission policy. The categories of 

fee-relief activities are identified in the 

FY 2021 proposed fee rule in Table I 

Excluded Activities and were also 

discussed during the FY 2021 proposed 

fee rule public meeting on March 18, 

2021. The fee relief activities identified 

by the Commission reflect a fair and 

equitable allocation of resources. 

No changes were made to this final 

rule as a result of these comments. 

D. Corporate Support Cap and the Fee 

Rule Work Papers 

Comment: One commenter stated that 

‘‘One of NEIMA’s requirements is the 

limitation of Corporate Support costs as 

a percentage of total budget authority, to 

the maximum extent practicable. Exelon 

suggests that the fee rule explain 

whether the Corporate Support costs are 

under the NEIMA limit. NRC should 

also demonstrate, either in the fee rule 

or the work papers, how the Corporate 

Support cost as a percentage of total 

budget authority is determined. For FY 

2021, NEIMA limits Corporate Support 

costs (to the maximum extent 

practicable) to 30 percent of the NRC’s 

total budget authority. During the March 

18, 2021 NRC public meeting on the 

Proposed Fee Rule, the staff explained 

that Corporate Support costs for FY2021 

totaled 31% of the agency’s overall 

budget. However, the work papers for 

the determination of the professional 

hourly rate includes approximately 

$284M for Corporate Support (with IG), 

which amounts to approximately 34% 

of the overall budget authority of 

$844M. The NRC should clearly explain 

in the fee rule how it arrived at the 31% 

allocation that it described during the 

public meeting.’’ (Exelon) 

Response: Section 102(a)(3) of NEIMA 

requires that, to the maximum extent 

practicable, the corporate support costs 

requested in the annual budget 

justification provided to Congress not 

exceed a specified percentage of the 

total budget authority requested for the 

NRC in its annual budget justification 

(Section 102(a)(3)(A) includes the 

percentage applicable to the annual 

budget justification for FY 2021). As 

stated in the Executive Summary to the 

FY 2021 CBJ, the corporate support 

request was approximately 31 percent of 

the agency’s total requested budget 

authority and reflects the agency’s 

efforts to comply with Section 

102(a)(3)(A) of NEIMA to the maximum 

extent practicable. The FY 2021 CBJ 

noted that further reductions to 

corporate support in FY 2021 were not 

feasible and would jeopardize the 

corporate activities necessary to 

accomplish the agency’s mission. Pages 

83–86 of the FY 2021 CBJ provide more 

specific information on the corporate 

support costs by product line that 

comprised the 31 percent referenced 

during the March 18, 2021, public 

meeting. The corporate support business 

line resources total approximately 

$271.4 million in FY 2021, as shown on 

page 83 of the FY 2021 CBJ. Corporate 

support does not include Inspector 

General budgetary resources. The 

percent corporate support is calculated 

by dividing $271.4 million by $863.4 

million, which is 31 percent of the 

agency’s total requested budget 

authority. 

Section 102(a)(3) of NEIMA as it 

pertains to the corporate support cap 

applicable to the annual budget 

justification does not apply to the 

annual fee rule. In the FY 2021 

proposed fee rule and supporting work 

papers, the NRC’s professional hourly 

rate calculation was derived by adding, 

in part, resources for agency support, 

which include both corporate support 

and the Inspector General. The agency 

support (corporate support and the 

Inspector General) resources in the FY 

2021 proposed fee rule total $283.7 

million, or approximately 34 percent 

when dividing by $844.4 million. In 

addition, the NRC’s overall budget 

authority was reduced by $19.0 million 

(and Congress, in turn, directed the NRC 

to use carryover funding, as further 

discussed in the ‘‘FY 2021 Fee 

Collection—Overview’’ section of this 

document). Also, the FY 2021 fee rule 

is based on the enacted budget, not the 

budget request. The agency will 

continue efforts to implement 

efficiencies and invest resources in 

initiatives that will result in future 

savings in corporate support activities. 

No changes were made to this final 

rule as a result of these comments. 

E. 10 CFR Part 171 Operating Power 

Reactors Fee Class Invoicing 

Comment: ‘‘As noted in the Proposed 

Fee Rule, NRC has improved the 

accuracy and clarity of Part 170 service 

fee invoicing, e.g., via internal auditing 

and development of Enterprise Project 

Identifiers (EPID). Exelon acknowledges 

and salutes the NRC’s success in this 

area. However, as accuracy and clarity 

in hourly fees collected under Part 170 

has increased, the actual amount of fees 

collected under Part 170 has decreased. 

Exelon understands that the numerous 

line item numbers shown in the work 

papers’ Power Reactors Fee Class details 

are themselves the summations of 

multiple other supporting calculations 

apparently too detailed to provide. 

Numerous as these line items are, their 

general nature makes understanding 

difficult for an outside reviewer. Exelon 

suggests that some ‘‘pointer’’ 

designation be developed, similar to the 

EPID/CAC system used for Part 170 fees 

[ ] and included in the quarterly Part 171 

reactor fee invoicing. This way, the 

details of which line items will be 

funded via reactor fee invoicing within 

a given calendar year quarter may be 

better tracked back to the work papers, 

allowing constructive dialogue between 

NRC and reactor licensees regarding the 

applicability of a particular line item to 

that licensee.’’ (Exelon) 

Response: With respect to 10 CFR part 

171, it would be impractical for the NRC 


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to provide a ‘‘pointer,’’ such as the 

budget string, since annual fees are a 

recovery of remaining costs associated 

with the particular business line budget 

reconciled to a fee class. 

The fee rule and its supporting work 

papers are published so the public and 

licensees can understand how fees are 

determined for a fee class and a fee 

category. Consistent with the 

requirements of NEIMA, annual fees are 

calculated by business lines, product 

lines, and products based on the budget 

authority enacted for the current fiscal 

year. The NRC provides those business 

lines, product lines, and products in the 

fee rule work papers. The CBJ provides 

the agency explanation and justification 

for the resources being requested for the 

budget year, including increases and 

decreases, and the reason for changes in 

the budget request for the agency as 

compared to the prior year, at the 

business line and product line levels; it 

also includes the prior year actual 

amounts at the business line and 

product line levels. 

Under NEIMA, the NRC must recover, 

to the maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its annual 

budget, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities. Under NEIMA, the 

NRC must use its IOAA authority first 

to collect 10 CFR part 170 service fees 

for NRC work that provides specific 

benefits to identifiable recipients, such 

as licensing activities, inspections, and 

special projects. In so doing, the NRC 

establishes a professional hourly rate for 

its work. The 10 CFR part 170 direct 

work performed is included on the 

quarterly invoice, which includes the 

CAC/EPID combination, charges, and 

the name(s) of the person(s) conducting 

the activities associated with the 

respective licensee fee class. With 

respect to 10 CFR part 170 service fees, 

the NRC staff time spent on licensing 

and inspection activities is subject to 

change, depending on the novelty and 

complexity of the application (e.g., new 

licenses, renewals, amendments, special 

projects) under review or the facility 

being inspected. 

Because the NRC’s fee recovery under 

the IOAA (10 CFR part 170) will not 

equal 100 percent of the agency’s total 

budget authority for the fiscal year (less 

the budget authority for excluded 

activities), the NRC also assesses annual 

fees under 10 CFR part 171 to recover 

the remaining amount necessary to 

comply with NEIMA. Thus, providing a 

‘‘pointer’’ for annual fees such as the 

budget string, as suggested by the 

commenter, would be impractical. 

At the same time, to increase 

transparency, the NRC first incorporated 

a reconciliation of the FY 2020 CBJ 

resources by business line to the 

associated fee class in the FY 2020 fee 

rule work papers so that stakeholders 

can trace the CBJ business line budgets 

to the resources recovered within each 

fee class budget by product line. The FY 

2021 fee rule work papers include the 

reconciliation of the FY 2021 CBJ to the 

respective fee class. The NRC continues 

to strive to enhance transparency of how 

fees are determined. 

No changes were made to the final 

rule as a result of this comment. 

F. Public Participation in Budget 

Formulation 

Comment: ‘‘Exelon supports the 

comments of the Nuclear Energy 

Institute on the FY 2021 Proposed Fee 

Rule. Given that there is no formal way 

for stakeholders to provide input into 

the formulation of the NRC’s annual 

budget, Exelon encourages the NRC to 

consider these comments as part of its 

next budget and fee formulation 

process. Exelon respects the objective 

judgment that NRC exercises as an 

independent safety regulator. However, 

Exelon encourages the NRC to seek 

ways to improve its interactions with 

the regulated industry during budget 

development, within the limits required 

to maintain NRC independence.’’ 

(Exelon) 

Response: The NRC seeks information 

from licensees and other entities 

relevant to projected workload, through 

public meetings and other forms of 

public outreach, to better inform the 

NRC’s budget formulation workload 

assumptions. This public outreach 

provides an opportunity for the 

regulated industry to provide 

information to inform the NRC budget. 

However, as noted in the comment, the 

NRC is an independent regulator, and to 

preserve its independence the NRC does 

not involve non-government 

organizations and members of the 

public in budget formulation. In 

addition, OMB establishes the Executive 

Branch budget process through OMB 

Circular No. A–11, ‘‘Preparation, 

Submission, and Execution of the 

Budget.’’ Section 22.1 of OMB Circular 

No. A–11 requires that pre-decisional 

budget deliberations remain 

confidential until the release of the 

President’s budget request (and, in turn, 

the CBJ). 

No changes were made to this final 

rule as a result of these comments. 

G. Small Entity 

Comment: One commenter had 

comments regarding the NRC’s small 

entity size standards and that the NRC 

should consider establishing lower 

licensing fees by creating one or more 

additional ranges between the $520,000 

and $7,000,000 gross annual receipts 

range. The commenter stated that a fee 

rate schedule with more steps for small 

businesses would help reduce the 

license fee burden on the smaller 

entities and help small business 

concerns. (RE) 

Response: To reduce the significance 

of the annual fees on a substantial 

number of small entities, the NRC 

established the maximum small entity 

fee in FY 1991. In FY 1992, the NRC 

introduced a second lower tier to the 

small entity fee. Because the NRC’s 

methodology for small entity size 

standards has been approved by the 

SBA, the NRC did not modify its current 

methodology for this rulemaking. 

In FY 2020, the NRC conducted a 

survey of materials licensees to collect 

relevant data to help determine the need 

for changes to the NRC’s small business 

size standards in § 2.810. In addition, 

the NRC considered changes in the 

small business size standards published 

by the SBA. 

On December 7, 2020, the staff 

submitted SECY–20–0111, ‘‘Rulemaking 

Plan to Amend the Receipts-Based NRC 

Size Standards,’’ to the Commission 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML20268B327) 

with the staff’s recommendations for 

amending the NRC’s receipts-based size 

standards. While the NRC staff 

recommended making inflation-related 

increases and adjusting the 

methodology for consistency with SBA 

regulations, the survey results did not 

suggest that the NRC should change its 

small entity size standards. In the SRM 

for SECY–20–0111 (ADAMS Accession 

No. ML21029A186), the Commission 

approved the staff’s recommendation to 

initiate a rulemaking to amend the 

NRC’s small business size standards in 

§ 2.810 and to comply with the Runway 

Act and related SBA regulations and to 

reflect inflation adjustments, which will 

be part of a separate rulemaking activity. 

Also, as part of that rulemaking activity, 

analogous to the proposed inflation 

adjustment in § 2.810, the NRC will be 

proposing to increase the upper tier and 

lower tier receipts-based small entity 

size standards in § 171.16(c). 

The NRC is currently in the process 

of developing the proposed rule for the 

small entity rulemaking activity. The 

NRC will continue to include updates 

on this rulemaking activity in the 

Federal Register notifications associated 

with the FY 2021 and FY 2022 fee rules 

to ensure that affected licensees are 

adequately informed. The public can 

track all NRC rulemaking activities, 

including the rulemaking on the NRC’s 

size standards, on the NRC’s 

Rulemaking Tracking and Reporting 


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system at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/rulemakingruleforum/active/RuleIndex.html, or by 

Docket ID NRC–2014–0264 at http://

www.regulations.gov. 

No change was made to this final rule 

in response to this comment. 

Comment: One commenter had 

questions regarding the categories of 

licensees that can qualify as small 

entities, and the categories of licensees 

whose average users’ fees are used to 

determine the maximum small entity 

fee. (Anonymous) 

Response: In implementing the 

Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as 

amended, the NRC ultimately 

determined that it was appropriate for 

the agency to establish its own size 

standards that were consistent with the 

NRC’s regulatory activities. The NRC 

classifies its small business licensees by 

their use of nuclear materials since the 

NRC’s materials categories cover a mix 

of industries. The NRC’s materials 

licensees can use the size standards 

criteria to quality as a small entity for 

a reduced annual fee. The NRC’s 

industry specific size standards were 

approved by the SBA. 

License types that allow a licensee to 

be eligible to qualify as a small entity 

and pay a reduced annual fee are listed 

under § 171.16. These include materials 

licenses (i.e., 10 CFR parts 30, 40, 70, 

71, and 76 licenses) and 10 CFR part 72 

licenses. The prior two-year weighted 

average of service fees for the qualifying 

fee categories that have small entity 

licensees is used in the biennial 

adjustment of the maximum small entity 

fee. Average service fees for types of 

licenses (e.g., 10 CFR part 50 licenses) 

that do not allow a licensee to be 

eligible to qualify as a small entity are 

not used in the determination of small 

entity fees. 

No change was made to this final rule 

in response to this comment. 

H. Definition of Research Reactor Under 

§ 170.11, § 171.11, and NEIMA 

Comment: ‘‘NEIMA’s exemption of a 

research reactor is a reactor licensed 

under section 104c of the Atomic 

Energy Act of 1954. It does not mention 

that it needs to be ‘‘Federal-owned and 

State-Owned research reactors used 

primarily for educational proposes.’’ So 

any Research Reactor licensed under 

104c of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 

and meets the requirement of operations 

list should be except [sic] from fees. 10 

CFR 170.11 and 10 CFR 171.11 need to 

be changed to reflect NEIMA definition 

of exempt. Having research and test 

reactors exempt from both annual and 

performance fees would encourage 

private investment as NEIMA was trying 

to do.’’ (Anonymous) 

Response: The NRC disagrees with 

this commenter’s position that, in order 

to be consistent with NEIMA, the NRC 

should change the definition of 

‘‘research reactor’’ in §§ 170.11 and 

171.11 to exempt from fees all research 

reactors licensed under Section 104c. of 

the Atomic Energy Act (AEA). First, 

NEIMA (in Section 102(b)(3)(D)(ii)) 

makes the annual fee exemption 

applicable for ‘‘federally owned 

research reactor used primarily for 

educational training and academic 

research purposes.’’ In addition, the 

primary purpose of this rule is to update 

the NRC’s fee schedules to recover, to 

the maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of the NRC’s 

total budget authority for the current 

fiscal year, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities, and to make other 

necessary corrections or appropriate 

changes to specific aspects of the NRC’s 

fee regulations in order to ensure 

compliance with NEIMA. 

The NRC has not proposed changing 

the definition of ‘‘research reactor,’’ or 

the types of research reactors that are 

exempt (i.e., Federally-owned and Stateowned research reactors used primarily 

for educational training and academic 

research purposes) in the specific 

exemptions in § 170.11(a)(9) or 

§ 171.11(b)(2). The current ‘‘research 

reactor’’ definition in §§ 170.11(a)(9) 

and 171.11(b)(2), and the types of 

research reactors that are exempt from 

annual fees, stemmed from language in 

OBRA–90. NEIMA included 

substantively similar fee exemption 

language for research reactors. Changing 

the definition of ‘‘research reactor’’ in 

§ 170.11(a)(9) or § 171.11(b)(2), or the 

types of research reactors that are 

exempt from fees pursuant to 

§§ 170.11(a)(9) and 171.11(b)(2), to 

include all research reactors licensed 

under Section 104c. of the AEA would 

not be consistent with the exemption 

provision in NEIMA or its predecessor 

in OBRA–90. 

Section 106 of NEIMA, ‘‘Encouraging 

private investment in research and test 

reactors,’’ pertains to the financial 

criteria used to determine whether a 

utilization facility is licensed as a 

commercial facility under Section 103 

of the AEA, ‘‘Commercial Licenses,’’ or 

as a research and development facility 

under paragraph c of Section 104, 

‘‘Medical Therapy and Research and 

Development,’’ of the AEA. This subject 

of this provision of NEIMA does not 

relate to fees and is outside the scope of 

this final rule. 

No change was made to this final rule 

in response to this comment. 

I. Accurate Invoicing 

Comment: ‘‘What are the policies for 

fairness? We’ve disputed invoices in the 

[past] because the NRC had already 

completed a task, we had been shut 

down for years and there was no need 

for the NRC to restudy, investigate or 

review the issue. Yet, we were told that 

the charges were valid because the 

employee did indeed work the hours 

they said on the project. Is it fair for us 

to have to pay for the same work twice? 

We don’t think so and the public would 

not think so. We can’t tell from our 

recent billings what activity within a 

project. For example, an inspector or 

auditor comes out and visits. Then they 

go back and write their report and ask 

RAI, etc. We only get total hours worked 

on the project, not how much time it 

took them to write the report, how much 

time did [they] work on specific items 

they are reporting on. That would be 

useful information to us the licensee.’’ 

(Anonymous) 

Response: The NRC is firmly 

committed to the application of fairness 

and equity in the assessment of fees. 

NEIMA requires the NRC to establish a 

schedule of fees that fairly and equitably 

allocates these fees among the NRC’s 

licensees and certificate holders. As part 

of this process, each year the NRC 

reassesses and publishes a proposed 

rule and final rule of the revisions of the 

fee schedules for each license fee class. 

As stated in the proposed rule, under 

NEIMA, the NRC must recover, to the 

maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its annual 

budget, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities. The NRC must use 

its IOAA authority first to collect service 

fees for NRC work that provides specific 

benefits to identifiable recipients (such 

as licensing activities, inspections, and 

special projects). Because the NRC’s fee 

recovery under the IOAA for 10 CFR 

part 170 fees for service will not equal 

100 percent of the agency’s total budget 

authority for the fiscal year (less the 

budget authority for excluded 

activities), the NRC also assesses annual 

fees under 10 CFR part 171 to recover 

the remaining amount necessary to 

comply with NEIMA. In the FY 2021 

proposed fee rule, each license fee class 

includes the specific information to 

detail how the annual fees are derived, 

such as the budgetary resources, and 10 

CFR part 170 estimated billings for 

direct activities, specific adjustments, 

the explanations for the changes, and 

the comparison to the prior fiscal year 

in order to derive the 10 CFR part 171 

annual fees. 

Additionally, Section 102(d) of 

NEIMA required three sets of actions 


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related to NRC invoices for service fees 

assessed under 10 CFR part 170. First, 

as stated in Section 102(d)(1) of NEIMA, 

the NRC must ‘‘ensure appropriate 

review and approval prior to the 

issuance of invoices’’ for service fees. 

Second, as stated in Section 102(d)(2) of 

NEIMA, the NRC must ‘‘develop and 

implement processes to audit invoices 

[for 10 CFR part 170 service fees] to 

ensure accuracy, transparency, and 

fairness.’’ Third, as stated in Section 

102(d)(3) of NEIMA, the NRC is required 

to ‘‘modify regulations to ensure fair 

and appropriate processes to provide 

licensees and applicants an opportunity 

to efficiently dispute or otherwise seek 

review and correction of errors in 

invoices’’ for service fees. 

For the first two sets of actions, the 

NRC developed and implemented 

process improvements to ensure 

accurate invoicing, which include, but 

is not limited to the following: (1) 

Implementing a process to standardize 

the validation of fees to ensure that fee 

billing data is correct before appearing 

on a licensee’s invoice; (2) redesigning 

the invoices to add clarity and 

transparency for its stakeholders such as 

including the names of individual NRC 

staff and/or contractor companies, if 

applicable, who had performed the 

work associated with the charges; and 

(3) implementing a new data structure 

to more effectively account for and track 

all billable work at the project level with 

an EPID data element, which provides 

useful details regarding the type of 

project or work that is being billed. 

Using this data structure allows NRC 

licensees and other persons assessed 

service fees to identify how many hours 

are being expended on each of the 

various activities within a project. 

For the third set of actions, as 

discussed in the proposed rule, the NRC 

has developed and is implementing 

requirements for a standard method for 

licensees and applicants to efficiently 

dispute or seek review and correction of 

errors in invoices, which is illustrated 

in the process map, ‘‘NRC Form 529, 

Processing Dispute of Fees-For-Service 

Charges’’ (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML20311A159). Additionally, the NRC 

is modifying its regulations related to 

accurate invoicing to clearly outline the 

interactions between the submitter and 

the NRC and enhance clarity regarding 

the dispute process by setting out: (1) 

The process for submitting a fee dispute, 

(2) the stages of the decisionmaking 

process while the dispute is under 

review, and (3) the manner by which the 

NRC will notify a debtor after it makes 

a final determination on a dispute. 

Finally, regarding the commenter’s 

specific comments on the regulatory 

activities that the NRC has previously 

conducted and billed to the commenter 

(e.g., inspection activities, reports, and 

requests for additional information on 

projects), this is outside scope of this 

final rule. If the commenter has specific 

questions regarding NRC invoices and 

fees that have been assessed, the 

commenter can contact the Office of the 

Chief Financial Officer via the eBilling 

system support portal, by email to 

FeeBillingInquiries.Resource@nrc.gov, 

or by mail to the Office of the Chief 

Financial Officer at U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, Attn: Chief Financial 

Officer. 

No change was made to this final rule 

in response to this comment. 

Comment: ‘‘NRC Form 529 on page 2 

has a list [of] 7 pre-conditions that you 

must certify that you have done. One of 

them is I Certify that the NRC Form 527 

‘‘Request for Information Related to 

Fees-for-Service’’ was submitted and a 

response was received by my 

organization. Who fills out the 

response? Do they know the details of 

the work the person in dispute was 

performing? We’ve used NRC Form 527 

in the past. NRC Response did not 

answer the questions we had in the 

additional disputed details. They just 

confirmed the information we already 

knew. [They] confirmed that the 

employee did work on the project, but 

did not detail what work they were 

doing.[ ] We’ve disputed bills in the 

past, the process only confirmed that 

the employee spent the hours working 

on the project so the charges are correct. 

The CFO refused to take into account 

the benefit to the licensee and/or 

fairness of the charge to the licensee. 45 

days from initial demand letter (invoice) 

is not enough time in some cases to 

determine if the invoice was correct, 

provided the licensee with a benefit, or 

was fair for the licensee to be charged. 

It should be 90 days from when the 

error became apparent for the licensee 

to dispute the charge. For example, [i]f 

you don’t like the dispute resolution, 

what is the process for future review or 

appeals outside of the NRC CFO 

office? ’’ (Anonymous) 

Response: The NRC continues to 

strive to enhance the invoicing process 

to ensure invoice accuracy and the 

availability of appropriate processes for 

licensees to efficiently request a review 

or submit a dispute for invoice errors. A 

licensee who requests additional 

information related to NRC staff/ 

contract costs associated with their NRC 

invoice is responsible for completing all 

items on page 1 of the NRC Form 527, 

except for the dedicated response 

section used by NRC staff only (detailed 

instructions are provided on page 2 in 

addition to a process map on page 3 of 

the form). After the licensee completely 

fills out their required portions of the 

NRC Form 527, it should be submitted 

to the Office of the Chief Financial 

Officer using one of the three listed 

options on the form. Once the form is 

received, the Office of the Chief 

Financial Officer will forward it to the 

appropriate EPID contact who will 

provide the response. The NRC EPID 

contact will always be the responsible 

point of contact who is fully 

knowledgeable of the work performed 

and, therefore, the appropriate 

individual to provide a response. 

The NRC Form 529 contains a listing 

of seven pre-conditions that all 

licensees must meet before submitting 

the form. These pre-conditions ensure 

licensees have properly adhered to 

NRC’s standard dispute process which 

requires: (1) An initial submission of the 

NRC Form 527 to request a formal 

review of the charges in question, and 

(2) submission of the NRC Form 529 to 

officially request a dispute of the 

charges after receiving the response 

provided on the NRC Form 527. 

Currently, most of the NRC’s licensees 

subject to 10 CFR part 170 fees are 

registered in eBilling, which is a publicfacing, web-based application that 

provides immediate delivery of NRC 

invoices in addition to the capability to 

view and analyze invoice details. 

Therefore, it is strongly recommended 

that licensees not registered in eBilling 

consider utilizing this electronic invoice 

platform, if they have the capability to 

do so. However, consideration was 

given to the current initial demand 

letter (invoice) 30-day policy, and the 

NRC is amending § 15.31 to allow 

licensees an additional 15 days to 

submit a review request from the initial 

demand letter (invoice). The NRC 

believes that 45 days from receiving an 

initial demand letter provides enough 

time for all licensees to determine if an 

invoice is accurate. Furthermore, upon 

submission of the NRC Form 529, the 

licensee must certify they are submitting 

an official dispute request to the Office 

of the Chief Financial Officer and agree 

that the final determination of the status 

of the disputed debt decision rests 

solely with the NRC. The NRC’s 

response to a licensee’s request 

submitted on the NRC Form 529 

officially completes the agency’s invoice 

dispute process. 

Finally, regarding the commenter’s 

specific comments on the regulatory 

activities that the NRC has previously 

conducted and billed to the commenter 

(e.g., inspection activities, reports, and 

requests for additional information on 


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5 5 U.S.C. 603. The RFA, 5 U.S.C. 601–612, has 

been amended by the Small Business Regulatory 

Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, Public Law 104– 

121, Title II, 110 Stat. 847 (1996). 

projects), this is outside of the scope of 

this final rule. If the commenter has 

specific questions regarding NRC 

invoices and fees that have been 

assessed, the commenter can contact the 

Office of the Chief Financial Officer via 

the eBilling system support portal, by 

email to FeeBillingInquiries.Resource@

nrc.gov, or by mail to the Office of the 

Chief Financial Officer at U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, Attn: Chief Financial 

Officer. 

No change was made to this final rule 

in response to this comment. 

J. Comments on Matters Not Related to 

This Rulemaking 

Several commenters raised issues 

outside the scope of the FY 2021 fee 

rule. Commenters raised concerns with 

the agency’s budgeting process and 

requested public participation on the 

agency’s budget formulation process. A 

few commenters requested expediting 

efficiency efforts and engaging industry 

regarding additional efficiencies, 

improvements and efficiencies in the 

review process for topical reports to 

reduce the professional hourly rate for 

special project fees. These matters are 

outside the scope of this final rule. The 

primary purpose of the rule is to update 

the NRC’s fee schedules to recover 

approximately 100 percent of the NRC’s 

total budget authority for the current 

fiscal year, less the budget authority for 

excluded activities, and to make other 

necessary corrections or appropriate 

changes to specific aspects of the NRC’s 

fee regulations in order to ensure 

compliance with NEIMA. 

The NRC understands the importance 

of examining and improving the 

efficiency of its operations and the 

prioritization of its regulatory activities. 

Accordingly, the NRC has undertaken, 

and continues to undertake, a number of 

significant initiatives aimed at 

improving the efficiency of NRC 

operations and enhancing the agency’s 

approach to regulating. Though 

comments raising these issues are not 

within the scope of this final rule, the 

NRC will consider this input in its 

future program operations. 

V. Regulatory Flexibility Certification 

As required by the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended 

(RFA),5 the NRC has prepared a 

regulatory flexibility analysis related to 

this final rule. The regulatory flexibility 

analysis is available as indicated in 

Section XIV, ‘‘Availability of 

Documents,’’ of this document. 

VI. Regulatory Analysis 

Under NEIMA, the NRC is required to 

recover, to the maximum extent 

practicable, approximately 100 percent 

of its annual budget for FY 2021 less the 

budget authority for excluded activities. 

The NRC established fee methodology 

guidelines for 10 CFR part 170 in 1978, 

and established additional fee 

methodology guidelines for 10 CFR part 

171 in 1986. In subsequent rulemakings, 

the NRC has adjusted its fees without 

changing the underlying principles of 

its fee policy to ensure that the NRC 

continues to comply with the statutory 

requirements for cost recovery. 

In this final rule, the NRC continues 

this longstanding approach. Therefore, 

the NRC did not identify any 

alternatives to the current fee structure 

guidelines and did not prepare a 

regulatory analysis for this final rule. 

VII. Backfitting and Issue Finality 

The NRC has determined that the 

backfit rule, § 50.109, does not apply to 

this final rule and that a backfit analysis 

is not required because these 

amendments do not require the 

modification of, or addition to, (1) 

systems, structures, components, or the 

design of a facility; (2) the design 

approval or manufacturing license for a 

facility; or (3) the procedures or 

organization required to design, 

construct, or operate a facility. 

VIII. Plain Writing 

The Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Pub. 

L. 111–274) requires Federal agencies to 

write documents in a clear, concise, and 

well-organized manner. The NRC wrote 

this document to be consistent with the 

Plain Writing Act, as well as the 

Presidential Memorandum, ‘‘Plain 

Language in Government Writing,’’ 

published June 10, 1998 (63 FR 31885). 

IX. National Environmental Policy Act 

The NRC has determined that this 

final rule is the type of action described 

in 10 CFR 51.22(c)(1). Therefore, neither 

an environmental impact statement nor 

environmental assessment has been 

prepared for this final rule. 

X. Paperwork Reduction Act 

This final rule does not contain a 

collection of information as defined in 

the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and, therefore, 

is not subject to the requirements of the 

Act. In accordance with 5 CFR 

1320.4(a)(2), NRC Forms 527 and 529 

are also not subject to the requirements 

of the Paperwork Reduction Act. 

Public Protection Notification 

The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, 

and a person is not required to respond 

to, a collection of information unless the 

document requesting or requiring the 

collection displays a currently valid 

OMB control number. 

XI. Congressional Review Act 

This final rule is a rule as defined in 

the Congressional Review Act of 1996 (5 

U.S.C. 801–808). The Office of 

Management and Budget has found it to 

be a major rule as defined in the 

Congressional Review Act. 

XII. Voluntary Consensus Standards 

The National Technology Transfer 

and Advancement Act of 1995, Public 

Law 104–113, requires that Federal 

agencies use technical standards that are 

developed or adopted by voluntary 

consensus standards bodies unless the 

use of such a standard is inconsistent 

with applicable law or otherwise 

impractical. In this final rule, the NRC 

is amending the licensing, inspection, 

and annual fees charged to its licensees 

and applicants, as necessary, to recover, 

to the maximum extent practicable, 

approximately 100 percent of its annual 

budget for FY 2021 less the budget 

authority for excluded activities, as 

required by NEIMA. This action does 

not constitute the establishment of a 

standard that contains generally 

applicable requirements. 

XIII. Availability of Guidance 

The Small Business Regulatory 

Enforcement Fairness Act requires all 

Federal agencies to prepare a written 

compliance guide for each rule for 

which the agency is required by 5 U.S.C. 

604 to prepare a regulatory flexibility 

analysis. The NRC, in compliance with 

the law, prepared the ‘‘Small Entity 

Compliance Guide’’ for the FY 2021 

final fee rule. The compliance guide was 

developed when the NRC completed the 

small entity biennial review for FY 

2021. This compliance guide is 

available as indicated in Section XIV, 

‘‘Availability of Documents,’’ of this 

document. 

XIV. Availability of Documents 

The documents identified in the 

following table are available to 

interested persons through one or more 

of the following methods, as indicated. 


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Documents ADAMS Accession No./web link 

SECY–05–0164, ‘‘Annual Fee Calculation Method,’’ dated September 15, 2005 .......... ML052580332. 

SECY–16–0097, ‘‘Fee Setting Improvements and Fiscal Year 2017 Proposed Fee 

Rule,’’ dated August 15, 2016.

ML16194A365. 

Staff Requirements Memorandum for SECY–16–0097, dated October 19, 2016 .......... ML16293A902. 

NUREG–1100, Volume 36, ‘‘Congressional Budget Justification: Fiscal Year 2021’’ 

(February 2020).

ML20024D764. 

Process map, ‘‘NRC Form 527, Request for Information Related to Fees-for-Service’’ ML20104C055. 

Process map, ‘‘NRC Form 529, Processing Dispute of Fees-For-Service Charges’’ ..... ML20311A159. 

NRC Form 529, ‘‘Dispute of Fees-For-Service Charges in Accordance with Title 10 of 

the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Processing Dispute of Fees-For-Service 

Charges § 170.51’’.

ML20339A673. 

FY 2021 Final Rule Work Papers .................................................................................... ML21119A024. 

FY 2021 Final Fee Rule .................................................................................................. ML21109A319. 

FY 2021 Regulatory Flexibility Analysis .......................................................................... ML21105A747. 

FY 2021 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Small Entity Compliance Guide ........... ML21105A750. 

SECY–19–0062, ‘‘Final Rule: Non-Power Production or Utilization Facility License Renewal,’’ dated June 17, 2019.ML18031A000. 

SECY–20–0111, ‘‘Rulemaking Plan to Amend the Receipts-Based NRC Size Standards,’’ dated December 7, 2020.ML20268B327. 

SRM–SECY–20–0111, ‘‘Rulemaking Plan to Amend the Receipts-Based NRC Size 

Standards’’ (NRC–2014–0264).

ML21029A189. 

NRC Form 526, ‘‘Certification of Small Entity Status for the Purposes of Annual Fees 

Imposed under 10 CFR Part 171’’.

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/forms/ 

nrc526.pdf. 

OMB Circular A–25, ‘‘User Charges’’ .............................................................................. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/ 

omb/assets/OMB/circulars/a025/a025.html. 

Fees Transformation Accomplishments .......................................................................... https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/licensing/feestransformation-accomplishments.html. 

List of Subjects 

10 CFR Part 15 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Claims, Debt collection. 

10 CFR Part 170 

Byproduct material, Import and 

export licenses, Intergovernmental 

relations, Non-payment penalties, 

Nuclear energy, Nuclear materials, 

Nuclear power plants and reactors, 

Source material, Special nuclear 

material. 

10 CFR Part 171 

Annual charges, Approvals, 

Byproduct material, Holders of 

certificates, Intergovernmental relations, 

Nonpayment penalties, Nuclear 

materials, Nuclear power plants and 

reactors, Registrations, Source material, 

Special nuclear material. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble and under the authority of the 

Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; 

the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, 

as amended; and 5 U.S.C. 552 and 553, 

the NRC is adopting the following 

amendments to 10 CFR parts 15, 170, 

and 171: 

PART 15—DEBT COLLECTION 

PROCEDURES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 15 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 

secs. 161, 186 (42 U.S.C. 2201, 2236); Energy 

Reorganization Act of 1974, sec. 201 (42 

U.S.C. 5841); 5 U.S.C. 5514; 26 U.S.C. 6402; 

31 U.S.C. 3701, 3713, 3716, 3719, 3720A; 42 

U.S.C. 664; 44 U.S.C. 3504 note; 31 CFR parts 

900 through 904; 31 CFR part 285; E.O. 

12146, 44 FR 42657, 3 CFR, 1979 Comp., p. 

409; E.O. 12988, 61 FR 4729, 3 CFR, 1996 

Comp., p. 157. 

■ 2. Revise § 15.31 to read as follows: 

§ 15.31 Disputed debts. 

(a) Submitting a dispute of debt. For 

any type of charges assessed by the 

NRC, a debtor may submit a dispute of 

debt within 45 days from the date of the 

initial demand letter. The debtor shall 

explain why the debt is incorrect in fact 

or in law and may support the 

explanation by affidavit, cancelled 

checks, or other relevant evidence. The 

dispute must be submitted to the Office 

of the Chief Financial Officer via the 

eBilling system, by email to 

FeeBillingInquiries.Resource@nrc.gov, 

or by mail to the Office of the Chief 

Financial Officer at: U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, Attn: Chief Financial 

Officer. For debt disputes related to 

charges for 10 CFR part 170 fees, the 

debtor must complete and submit an 

NRC Form 529 with the required 

information. 

(b) Notification of receipt. Following 

receipt of the dispute, the NRC will 

acknowledge receipt to the contact 

person identified by the debtor. 

(c) Dispute review. The NRC will 

consider the facts involved in the 

dispute and, if it considers it necessary, 

arrange for a conference during which 

the debtor may present evidence and 

any arguments in support of the debtor’s 

position. If the debtor’s dispute 

potentially raises an error, the NRC may 

extend the interest waiver period as 

described in § 15.37(j) pending a final 

determination of the existence or 

amount of the debt. 

(d) Dispute resolution. If the NRC 

finds that the dispute has not identified 

an error, the NRC will notify the dispute 

contact. If the NRC finds that the 

dispute has identified an error, the NRC 

will: 

(1) Notify the dispute contact; 

(2) Make corrections to the charges or 

information on the demand letter; and 

(3) Issue a revised demand letter. 

■ 3. In § 15.37, revise paragraph (j) to 

read as follows: 

§ 15.37 Interest, penalties, and 

administrative costs. 

* * * * * 

(j) The NRC may waive interest during 

the period a debt disputed under 

§ 15.31 is under consideration by the NRC. 

However, this additional waiver is not 

automatic and must be requested before 

the expiration of the initial 30-day waiver 

period. The NRC may grant the additional 

waiver only when it finds the debtor’s 

dispute potentially raises an error. 

* * * * * 

■ 4. In § 15.53, revise paragraphs (c) and 

(e) to read as follows: 

§ 15.53 Reasons for suspending collection 

action. 

* * * * * 


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(c) The debtor has requested a review 

of the debt or has disputed the debt. 

* * * * * 

(e)(1) The NRC shall suspend 

collection activity during the time 

required for consideration of the 

debtor’s request for review or dispute of 

the debt, if the statute under which the 

request is sought prohibits the NRC 

from collecting the debt during that 

time. 

(2) If the statute under which the 

request is sought does not prohibit 

collection activity pending 

consideration of the request, the NRC 

may use discretion, on a case-by-case 

basis, to suspend collection. Further, the 

NRC ordinarily should suspend 

collection action upon a request for 

review or dispute of the debt, if the NRC 

is prohibited by statute or regulation 

from issuing a refund of amounts 

collected prior to NRC consideration of 

the debtor’s request. However, the NRC 

should not suspend collection when the 

NRC determines that the request for 

review or dispute of the debt is frivolous 

or was made primarily to delay 

collection. 

* * * * * 

PART 170—FEES FOR FACILITIES, 

MATERIALS, IMPORT AND EXPORT 

LICENSES, AND OTHER 

REGULATORY SERVICES UNDER THE 

ATOMIC ENERGY ACT OF 1954, AS 

AMENDED 

■ 5. The authority citation for part 170 

is revised to read as follows: 

Authority: Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 

secs. 11, 161(w) (42 U.S.C. 2014, 2201(w)); 

Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, sec. 201 

(42 U.S.C. 5841); 42 U.S.C. 2215; 31 U.S.C. 

901, 902, 9701; 44 U.S.C. 3504 note. 

■ 6. Revise § 170.1 to read as follows: 

§ 170.1 Purpose. 

The regulations in this part set out 

fees charged for licensing services, 

inspection services, and special projects 

rendered by the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission as authorized under title V 

of the Independent Offices 

Appropriation Act, 1952 (31 U.S.C. 

9701(a)). 

■ 7. In § 170.3: 

■ a. Remove the definition for ‘‘Balance 

of plant’’; 

■ b. Add a definition for ‘‘Non-power 

production or utilization facility’’ in 

alphabetical order; and 

■ c. Remove the definitions for ‘‘Nuclear 

Steam Supply System’’ and ‘‘Reference 

systems concept’’. 

The addition reads as follows: 

§ 170.3 Definitions. 

* * * * * 

Non-power production or utilization 

facility means a production or 

utilization facility licensed under 10 

CFR 50.21(a) or (c), or 10 CFR 50.22, as 

applicable, that is not a nuclear power 

reactor or production facility as defined 

under paragraphs (1) and (2) of the 

definition of ‘‘production facility’’ in 10 

CFR 50.2. 

* * * * * 

§ 170.20 [Amended] 

■ 8. In § 170.20, remove the dollar 

amount ‘‘$279’’ and add in its place the 

dollar amount ‘‘$288’’. 

■ 9. In § 170.21, in the table: 

■ a. Revise the table heading and the 

entry for ‘‘K. Import and export 

licenses’’; and 

■ b. Remove footnote 6. 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 170.21 Schedule of fees for production 

and utilization facilities, review of standard 

referenced design approvals, special 

projects, inspections and import and export 

licenses. 

* * * * * 

TABLE 1 TO § 170.21—SCHEDULE OF FACILITY FEES

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Facility categories and type of fees Fees 1 2

*******

K. Import and export licenses: 

Licenses for the import and export only of production or utilization facilities or the export only of components for production

or utilization facilities issued under 10 CFR part 110.

1. Application for import or export of production or utilization facilities 4 (including reactors and other facilities) and exports of components requiring Commission and Executive Branch review, for example, actions under 10 CFR 

110.40(b).

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ..................................................................... $20,200 

2. Application for export of reactor and other components requiring Executive Branch review, for example, those actions under 10 CFR 110.41(a).

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ..................................................................... 10,100 

3. Application for export of components requiring the assistance of the Executive Branch to obtain foreign government 

assurances.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ..................................................................... 7,200 

4. Application for export of facility components and equipment not requiring Commission or Executive Branch review, 

or obtaining foreign government assurances.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ..................................................................... 4,900 

5. Minor amendment of any active export or import license, for example, to extend the expiration date, change domestic information, or make other revisions which do not involve any substantive changes to license terms or conditions 

or to the type of facility or component authorized for export and, therefore, do not require in-depth analysis or review 

or consultation with the Executive Branch, U.S. host state, or foreign government authorities.

Minor amendment to license .......................................................................................................................................... 4,300 

1Fees will be charged for approvals issued under a specific exemption provision of the Commission’s regulations under title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (e.g., 10 CFR 50.12, 10 CFR 73.5) and any other sections in effect now or in the future, regardless of whether the approval 

is in the form of a license amendment, letter of approval, safety evaluation report, or other form. 2Full cost fees will be determined based on the professional staff time and appropriate contractual support services expended. For applications 

currently on file and for which fees are determined based on the full cost expended for the review, the professional staff hours expended for the 

review of the application up to the effective date of the final rule will be determined at the professional rates in effect when the service was 

provided. 


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* * * * * 

■ 10. In § 170.31, revise the table to read 

as follows: 

§ 170.31 Schedule of fees for materials 

licenses and other regulatory services, 

including inspections, and import and 

export licenses. 

* * * * * 

TABLE 1 TO § 170.31—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fees 2 3

1. Special nuclear material: 11

A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of U–235 or plutonium for fuel fabrication activities.

(a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material (High Enriched Uranium) 6 [Program Code(s): 21213] ......................................... Full Cost. 

(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Form Used for Fabrication of Power Reactor Fuel 6 [Program Code(s): 

21210].

Full Cost. 

(2) All other special nuclear materials licenses not included in Category 1.A. (1) which are licensed for fuel cycle activities 6.

(a) Facilities with limited operations 6 [Program Code(s): 21240, 21310, 21320] ............................................................. Full Cost. 

(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration facilities.6 [Program Code(s): 21205] ........................................................ Full Cost. 

(c) Others, including hot cell facilities.6 [Program Code(s): 21130, 21133] ...................................................................... Full Cost. 

B. Licenses for receipt and storage of spent fuel and reactor-related Greater than Class C (GTCC) waste at an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) 6 [Program Code(s): 23200].Full Cost. 

C. Licenses for possession and use of special nuclear material of less than a critical mass as defined in § 70.4 of this 

chapter in sealed sources contained in devices used in industrial measuring systems, including x-ray fluorescence analyzers.4.

Application [Program Code(s): 22140] ............................................................................................................................... $1,300. 

D. All other special nuclear material licenses, except licenses authorizing special nuclear material in sealed or unsealed 

form in combination that would constitute a critical mass, as defined in § 70.4 of this chapter, for which the licensee 

shall pay the same fees as those under Category 1.A.4.

Application [Program Code(s): 22110, 22111, 22120, 22131, 22136, 22150, 22151, 22161, 22170, 23100, 23300, 

23310].

$2,700. 

E. Licenses or certificates for construction and operation of a uranium enrichment facility 6 [Program Code(s): 21200] ....... Full Cost. 

F. Licenses for possession and use of special nuclear material greater than critical mass as defined in § 70.4 of this 

chapter, for development and testing of commercial products, and other non-fuel-cycle activities.4 6 [Program Code(s): 

22155].

Full Cost. 

2. Source material: 11

A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of source material for refining uranium mill concentrates to uranium hexafluoride 

or for deconverting uranium hexafluoride in the production of uranium oxides for disposal.6 [Program Code(s): 11400].

Full Cost. 

(2) Licenses for possession and use of source material in recovery operations such as milling, in-situ recovery, heapleaching, ore buying stations, ion-exchange facilities, and in processing of ores containing source material for extraction 

of metals other than uranium or thorium, including licenses authorizing the possession of byproduct waste material 

(tailings) from source material recovery operations, as well as licenses authorizing the possession and maintenance of 

a facility in a standby mode 6.

(a) Conventional and Heap Leach facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11100] .......................................................................... Full Cost. 

(b) Basic In Situ Recovery facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11500] ...................................................................................... Full Cost. 

(c) Expanded In Situ Recovery facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11510] ............................................................................... Full Cost. 

(d) In Situ Recovery Resin facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11550] ..................................................................................... Full Cost. 

(e) Resin Toll Milling facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11555] ............................................................................................... Full Cost. 

(f) Other facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11700] ................................................................................................................... Full Cost. 

(3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct material, as defined in Section 11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from 

other persons for possession and disposal, except those licenses subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2) or Category 

2.A.(4) 6 [Program Code(s): 11600, 12000].

Full Cost. 

(4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct material, as defined in Section 11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from 

other persons for possession and disposal incidental to the disposal of the uranium waste tailings generated by the licensee’s milling operations, except those licenses subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2) 6 [Program Code(s): 12010].

Full Cost. 

B. Licenses which authorize the possession, use, and/or installation of source material for shielding.7 8.

Application [Program Code(s): 11210] ............................................................................................................................... $1,300. 

C. Licenses to distribute items containing source material to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 40 of 

this chapter.

Application [Program Code(s): 11240] ............................................................................................................................... $6,200. 

D. Licenses to distribute source material to persons generally licensed under part 40 of this chapter..

Application [Program Code(s): 11230, 11231] ................................................................................................................... $2,900. 

E. Licenses for possession and use of source material for processing or manufacturing of products or materials containing source material for commercial distribution.

Application [Program Code(s): 11710] ............................................................................................................................... $2,700. 

F. All other source material licenses..

Application [Program Code(s): 11200, 11220, 11221, 11300, 11800, 11810, 11820] ...................................................... $2,700. 

3. Byproduct material: 11

A. Licenses of broad scope for the possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 03211, 03212, 03213] ...................................................................................................... $13,500. 


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TABLE 1 TO § 170.31—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fees 2 3

(1). Licenses of broad scope for the possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this 

chapter for processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number 

of locations of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04010, 04012, 04014] ............................................................................................... $17,900. 

(2). Licenses of broad scope for the possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this 

chapter for processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number 

of locations of use: More than 20. 

Application [Program Code(s): 04011, 04013, 04015] ............................................................................................... $22,400. 

B. Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for processing or 

manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 03214, 03215, 22135, 22162] .......................................................................................... $3,700. 

(1). Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for processing 

or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 6– 

20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04110, 04112, 04114, 04116] ................................................................................... $5,000. 

(2). Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for processing 

or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 

More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04111, 04113, 04115, 04117] ................................................................................... $6,200. 

C. Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter that authorize the processing or manufacturing and distribution or redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits, and/or sources and devices containing byproduct material. This category does not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit educational institutions whose processing 

or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4). Number of locations of use: 1–5. 

Application [Program Code(s): 02500, 02511, 02513] ...................................................................................................... $5,400. 

(1). Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter that authorize the processing or manufacturing and 

distribution or redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits, and/or sources and devices containing byproduct material. This category does not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit educational institutions 

whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4). Number of locations of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04210, 04212, 04214] ............................................................................................... $7,200. 

(2). Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter that authorize the processing or manufacturing and 

distribution or redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits, and/or sources and devices containing byproduct material. This category does not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit educational institutions 

whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4). Number of locations of use: More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04211, 04213, 04215] ............................................................................................... $8,900. 

D. [Reserved] ............................................................................................................................................................................. N/A. 

E. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material in sealed sources for irradiation of materials in which the 

source is not removed from its shield (self-shielded units). 

Application [Program Code(s): 03510, 03520] ................................................................................................................... $3,300. 

F. Licenses for possession and use of less than or equal to 10,000 curies of byproduct material in sealed sources for irradiation of materials in which the source is exposed for irradiation purposes. This category also includes underwater 

irradiators for irradiation of materials where the source is not exposed for irradiation purposes. 

Application [Program Code(s): 03511] ............................................................................................................................... $6,700. 

G. Licenses for possession and use of greater than 10,000 curies of byproduct material in sealed sources for irradiation 

of materials in which the source is exposed for irradiation purposes. This category also includes underwater irradiators 

for irradiation of materials where the source is not exposed for irradiation purposes. 

Application [Program Code(s): 03521] ............................................................................................................................... $64,300. 

H. Licenses issued under subpart A of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material that require device review to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 of this chapter. The category does 

not include specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have been authorized for distribution to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 of this chapter.

Application [Program Code(s): 03254, 03255, 03257] ...................................................................................................... $6,900. 

I. Licenses issued under subpart A of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material or quantities 

of byproduct material that do not require device evaluation to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 

30 of this chapter. This category does not include specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have been 

authorized for distribution to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 of this chapter..

Application [Program Code(s): 03250, 03251, 03253, 03256] .......................................................................................... $15,300. 

J. Licenses issued under subpart B of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material that require 

sealed source and/or device review to persons generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter. This category does not 

include specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have been authorized for distribution to persons generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter. 

Application [Program Code(s): 03240, 03241, 03243] ...................................................................................................... $2,100. 

K. Licenses issued under subpart B of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material or quantities of byproduct material that do not require sealed source and/or device review to persons generally licensed under 

part 31 of this chapter. This category does not include specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have 

been authorized for distribution to persons generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter.

Application [Program Code(s): 03242, 03244] ................................................................................................................... $1,200. 

L. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for 

research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 01100, 01110, 01120, 03610, 03611, 03612, 03613] ...................................................... $5,700. 


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TABLE 1 TO § 170.31—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fees 2 3

(1) Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 6–20..

Application [Program Code(s): 04610, 04612, 04614, 04616, 04618, 04620, 04622] .............................................. $7,500. 

(2) Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: More 

than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04611, 04613, 04615, 04617, 04619, 04621, 04623] .............................................. $9,400. 

M. Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution.

Application [Program Code(s): 03620] ............................................................................................................................... $8,600. 

N. Licenses that authorize services for other licensees, except: (1) Licenses that authorize only calibration and/or leak 

testing services are subject to the fees specified in fee Category 3.P.; and (2) Licenses that authorize waste disposal 

services are subject to the fees specified in fee Categories 4.A., 4.B., and 4.C.

Application [Program Code(s): 03219, 03225, 03226] ...................................................................................................... $9,200. 

O. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 34 of this chapter for industrial radiography 

operations. Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 03310, 03320] ................................................................................................................... $9,200. 

(1). Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 34 of this chapter for industrial radiography operations. Number of locations of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04310, 04312] ........................................................................................................... $12,200. 

(2). Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 34 of this chapter for industrial radiography operations. Number of locations of use: More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04311, 04313] ........................................................................................................... $15,300. 

P. All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D.9 Number of locations of 

use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 02400, 02410, 03120, 03121, 03122, 03123, 03124, 03130, 03140, 03220, 03221, 

03222, 03800, 03810, 22130].

$6,600. 

(1). All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D.9 Number of locations 

of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04410, 04412, 04414, 04416, 04418, 04420, 04422, 04424, 04426, 04428, 

04430, 04432, 04434, 04436, 04438].

$8,800. 

(2). All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D.9 Number of locations 

of use: More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04411, 04413, 04415, 04417, 04419, 04421, 04423, 04425, 04427, 04429, 

04431, 04433, 04435, 04437, 04439].

$10,900. 

Q. Registration of a device(s) generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter. Registration ................................................. $800. 

R. Possession of items or products containing radium-226 identified in § 31.12 of this chapter which exceed the number 

of items or limits specified in that section 5.

1. Possession of quantities exceeding the number of items or limits in § 31.12(a)(4) or (5) of this chapter but less 

than or equal to 10 times the number of items or limits specified.

Application [Program Code(s): 02700] ........................................................................................................................ $2,600. 

2. Possession of quantities exceeding 10 times the number of items or limits specified in § 31.12(a)(4) or (5) of this 

chapter.

Application [Program Code(s): 02710] ........................................................................................................................ $2,600. 

S. Licenses for production of accelerator-produced radionuclides.

Application [Program Code(s): 03210] ............................................................................................................................... $14,700. 

4. Waste disposal and processing: 11

A. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of waste byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material 

from other persons for the purpose of contingency storage or commercial land disposal by the licensee; or licenses authorizing contingency storage of low-level radioactive waste at the site of nuclear power reactors; or licenses for receipt 

of waste from other persons for incineration or other treatment, packaging of resulting waste and residues, and transfer 

of packages to another person authorized to receive or dispose of waste material.

Application [Program Code(s): 03231, 03233, 03236, 06100, 06101] .............................................................................. Full Cost. 

B. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of waste byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material 

from other persons for the purpose of packaging or repackaging the material. The licensee will dispose of the material 

by transfer to another person authorized to receive or dispose of the material.

Application [Program Code(s): 03234] ............................................................................................................................... $7,200. 

C. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of prepackaged waste byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material from other persons. The licensee will dispose of the material by transfer to another person authorized to 

receive or dispose of the material.

Application [Program Code(s): 03232] ............................................................................................................................... $5,200. 

5. Well logging: 11

A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material, source material, and/or special nuclear material for well logging, well surveys, and tracer studies other than field flooding tracer studies.

Application [Program Code(s): 03110, 03111, 03112] ...................................................................................................... $4,800. 

B. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material for field flooding tracer studies.

Licensing [Program Code(s): 03113] ................................................................................................................................. Full Cost. 

6. Nuclear laundries: 11

A. Licenses for commercial collection and laundry of items contaminated with byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material.

Application [Program Code(s): 03218] ............................................................................................................................... $22,900. 


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TABLE 1 TO § 170.31—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fees 2 3

7. Medical licenses: 11

A. Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, 

or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units, teletherapy devices, 

or similar beam therapy devices. Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 02300, 02310] ................................................................................................................... $11,500. 

(1). Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units, teletherapy 

devices, or similar beam therapy devices. Number of locations of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04510, 04512] ........................................................................................................... $15,300. 

(2). Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units, teletherapy 

devices, or similar beam therapy devices. Number of locations of use: More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04511, 04513] ........................................................................................................... $19,100. 

B. Licenses of broad scope issued to medical institutions or two or more physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 70 of 

this chapter authorizing research and development, including human use of byproduct material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This 

category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when authorized on the same license. 

Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 02110] ............................................................................................................................... $9,000. 

(1). Licenses of broad scope issued to medical institutions or two or more physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 

70 of this chapter authorizing research and development, including human use of byproduct material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when authorized on the same license. Number of locations of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04710] ........................................................................................................................ $11,900. 

(2). Licenses of broad scope issued to medical institutions or two or more physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 

70 of this chapter authorizing research and development, including human use of byproduct material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when authorized on the same license. Number of locations of use: More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04711] ........................................................................................................................ $14,900. 

C. Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices.10 Number of locations of use: 1–5.

Application [Program Code(s): 02120, 02121, 02200, 02201, 02210, 02220, 02230, 02231, 02240, 22160] ................. $10,900. 

(1). Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source 

material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear 

material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices.10 Number of locations of use: 6–20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04810, 04812, 04814, 04816, 04818, 04820, 04822, 04824, 04826, 04828] .......... $9,000. 

(2). Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source 

material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear 

material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices.10 Number of locations of use: More than 20.

Application [Program Code(s): 04811,04813, 04815, 04817, 04819, 04821,04823, 04825, 04827, 04829] ............ $11,300. 

8. Civil defense: 11

A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material for civil defense 

activities.

Application [Program Code(s): 03710] ............................................................................................................................... $2,600. 

9. Device, product, or sealed source safety evaluation: 

A. Safety evaluation of devices or products containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material, 

except reactor fuel devices, for commercial distribution.

Application—each device ................................................................................................................................................... $17,900. 

B. Safety evaluation of devices or products containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material 

manufactured in accordance with the unique specifications of, and for use by, a single applicant, except reactor fuel 

devices.

Application—each device ................................................................................................................................................... $9,300. 

C. Safety evaluation of sealed sources containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material, except 

reactor fuel, for commercial distribution.

Application—each source ................................................................................................................................................... $5,500. 

D. Safety evaluation of sealed sources containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material, manufactured in accordance with the unique specifications of, and for use by, a single applicant, except reactor fuel.

Application—each source ................................................................................................................................................... $1,100. 

10. Transportation of radioactive material: 

A. Evaluation of casks, packages, and shipping containers.

1. Spent Fuel, High-Level Waste, and plutonium air packages ........................................................................................ Full Cost. 

2. Other Casks ................................................................................................................................................................... Full Cost. 

B. Quality assurance program approvals issued under part 71 of this chapter.

1. Users and Fabricators. Application ................................................................................................................................ $4,300. 

Inspections .................................................................................................................................................................. Full Cost. 

2. Users. Application .......................................................................................................................................................... $4,300. 

Inspections .................................................................................................................................................................. Full Cost. 


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TABLE 1 TO § 170.31—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fees 2 3

C. Evaluation of security plans, route approvals, route surveys, and transportation security devices (including immobilization devices).Full Cost. 

11. Review of standardized spent fuel facilities ............................................................................................................................... Full Cost. 

12. Special projects: Including approvals, pre-application/licensing activities, and inspections.

Application [Program Code: 25110] .......................................................................................................................................... Full Cost. 

13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Compliance ............................................................................................................... Full Cost. 

B. Inspections related to storage of spent fuel under § 72.210 of this chapter ........................................................................ Full Cost. 

14. Decommissioning/Reclamation: 11

A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear material licenses and other approvals authorizing decommissioning, decontamination, reclamation, or site restoration activities under parts 30, 40, 70, 72, and 76 of this chapter, including master 

materials licenses (MMLs). The transition to this fee category occurs when a licensee has permanently ceased principal activities. [Program Code(s): 03900, 11900, 21135, 21215, 21325, 22200].

Full Cost. 

B. Site-specific decommissioning activities associated with unlicensed sites, including MMLs, regardless of whether or not 

the sites have been previously licensed.

Full Cost. 

15. Import and Export licenses: 

Licenses issued under part 110 of this chapter for the import and export only of special nuclear material, source material, 

tritium and other byproduct material, and the export only of heavy water, or nuclear grade graphite (fee categories 

15.A. through 15.E.).

A. Application for export or import of nuclear materials, including radioactive waste requiring Commission and Executive 

Branch review, for example, those actions under § 110.40(b) of this chapter.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $20,200. 

B. Application for export or import of nuclear material, including radioactive waste, requiring Executive Branch review, but 

not Commission review. This category includes applications for the export and import of radioactive waste and requires 

the NRC to consult with domestic host state authorities (i.e., Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission, the 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, etc.).

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $10,100. 

C. Application for export of nuclear material, for example, routine reloads of low enriched uranium reactor fuel and/or natural uranium source material requiring the assistance of the Executive Branch to obtain foreign government assurances.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $7,200. 

D. Application for export or import of nuclear material not requiring Commission or Executive Branch review, or obtaining 

foreign government assurances.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $4,900. 

E. Minor amendment of any active export or import license, for example, to extend the expiration date, change domestic 

information, or make other revisions which do not involve any substantive changes to license terms and conditions or 

to the type/quantity/chemical composition of the material authorized for export and, therefore, do not require in-depth 

analysis, review, or consultations with other Executive Branch, U.S. host state, or foreign government authorities. Minor 

amendment.

$4,900. 

Licenses issued under part 110 of this chapter for the import and export only of Category 1 and Category 2 quantities of 

radioactive material listed in appendix P to part 110 of this chapter (fee categories 15.F. through 15.R.).

Category 1 (Appendix P, 10 CFR Part 110) Exports: 

F. Application for export of appendix P Category 1 materials requiring Commission review (e.g. exceptional circumstance 

review under § 110.42(e)(4) of this chapter) and to obtain one government-to-government consent for this process. For 

additional consent see fee category 15.I.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $17,300. 

G. Application for export of appendix P Category 1 materials requiring Executive Branch review and to obtain one government-to-government consent for this process. For additional consents see fee category 15.I.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $8,600. 

H. Application for export of appendix P Category 1 materials and to obtain one government-to-government consent for 

this process. For additional consents see fee category 15.I.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $4,900. 

I. Requests for each additional government-to-government consent in support of an export license application or active 

export license.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $1,400. 

Category 2 (Appendix P, 10 CFR Part 110) Exports: 

J. Application for export of appendix P Category 2 materials requiring Commission review (e.g. exceptional circumstance 

review under § 110.42(e)(4) of this chapter).

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $17,300. 

K. Applications for export of appendix P Category 2 materials requiring Executive Branch review.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $8,600. 

L. Application for the export of Category 2 materials.

Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request ......................................................................... $4,300. 

M. [Reserved] ............................................................................................................................................................................ N/A. 

N. [Reserved] ............................................................................................................................................................................. N/A. 

O. [Reserved] ............................................................................................................................................................................ N/A. 

P. [Reserved] ............................................................................................................................................................................. N/A. 

Q. [Reserved] ............................................................................................................................................................................ N/A. 

Minor Amendments (Category 1 and 2, Appendix P, 10 CFR Part 110, Export): 

R. Minor amendment of any active export license, for example, to extend the expiration date, change domestic information, or make other revisions which do not involve any substantive changes to license terms and conditions or to the 

type/quantity/chemical composition of the material authorized for export and, therefore, do not require in-depth analysis, 

review, or consultations with other Executive Branch, U.S. host state, or foreign authorities. Minor amendment.

$1,400. 


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TABLE 1 TO § 170.31—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fees 2 3

16. Reciprocity: 

Agreement State licensees who conduct activities under the reciprocity provisions of § 150.20 of this chapter.

Application .......................................................................................................................................................................... $2,700. 

17. Master materials licenses of broad scope issued to Government agencies.

Application [Program Code(s): 03614] ...................................................................................................................................... Full Cost. 

18. Department of Energy: 

A. Certificates of Compliance. Evaluation of casks, packages, and shipping containers (including spent fuel, high-level 

waste, and other casks, and plutonium air packages).

Full Cost. 

B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) activities ....................................................................................... Full Cost. 

1Types of fees—Separate charges, as shown in the schedule, will be assessed for pre-application consultations and reviews; applications for 

new licenses, approvals, or license terminations; possession-only licenses; issuances of new licenses and approvals; certain amendments and 

renewals to existing licenses and approvals; safety evaluations of sealed sources and devices; generally licensed device registrations; and certain inspections. The following guidelines apply to these charges: 

(1) Application and registration fees. Applications for new materials licenses and export and import licenses; applications to reinstate expired, 

terminated, or inactive licenses, except those subject to fees assessed at full costs; applications filed by Agreement State licensees to register 

under the general license provisions of 10 CFR 150.20; and applications for amendments to materials licenses that would place the license in a 

higher fee category or add a new fee category must be accompanied by the prescribed application fee for each category. 

(i) Applications for licenses covering more than one fee category of special nuclear material or source material must be accompanied by the 

prescribed application fee for the highest fee category. 

(ii) Applications for new licenses that cover both byproduct material and special nuclear material in sealed sources for use in gauging devices 

will pay the appropriate application fee for fee category 1.C. only. 

(2) Licensing fees. Fees for reviews of applications for new licenses, renewals, and amendments to existing licenses, pre-application consultations and other documents submitted to the NRC for review, and project manager time for fee categories subject to full cost fees are due upon 

notification by the Commission in accordance with § 170.12(b). 

(3) Amendment fees. Applications for amendments to export and import licenses must be accompanied by the prescribed amendment fee for 

each license affected. An application for an amendment to an export or import license or approval classified in more than one fee category must 

be accompanied by the prescribed amendment fee for the category affected by the amendment, unless the amendment is applicable to two or 

more fee categories, in which case the amendment fee for the highest fee category would apply. 

(4) Inspection fees. Inspections resulting from investigations conducted by the Office of Investigations and nonroutine inspections that result 

from third-party allegations are not subject to fees. Inspection fees are due upon notification by the Commission in accordance with § 170.12(c). 

(5) Generally licensed device registrations under 10 CFR 31.5. Submittals of registration information must be accompanied by the prescribed 

fee. 2Fees will be charged for approvals issued under a specific exemption provision of the Commission’s regulations under title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (e.g., 10 CFR 30.11, 40.14, 70.14, 73.5, and any other sections in effect now or in the future), regardless of whether the approval is in the form of a license amendment, letter of approval, safety evaluation report, or other form. In addition to the fee shown, an applicant 

may be assessed an additional fee for sealed source and device evaluations as shown in fee categories 9.A. through 9.D. 3Full cost fees will be determined based on the professional staff time multiplied by the appropriate professional hourly rate established in 

§ 170.20 in effect when the service is provided, and the appropriate contractual support services expended. 4 Licensees paying fees under categories 1.A., 1.B., and 1.E. are not subject to fees under categories 1.C., 1.D. and 1.F. for sealed sources 

authorized in the same license, except for an application that deals only with the sealed sources authorized by the license. 5Persons who possess radium sources that are used for operational purposes in another fee category are not also subject to the fees in this 

category. (This exception does not apply if the radium sources are possessed for storage only.) 6 Licensees subject to fees under fee categories 1.A., 1.B., 1.E., or 2.A. must pay the largest applicable fee and are not subject to additional 

fees listed in this table. 7 Licensees paying fees under 3.C., 3.C.1, or 3.C.2 are not subject to fees under 2.B. for possession and shielding authorized on the same license. 8 Licensees paying fees under 7.C. are not subject to fees under 2.B. for possession and shielding authorized on the same license. 9Licensees paying fees under 3.N. are not subject to paying fees under 3.P., 3.P.1, or 3.P.2 for calibration or leak testing services authorized 

on the same license. 10 Licensees paying fees under 7.B., 7.B.1, or 7.B.2 are not subject to paying fees under 7.C., 7.C.1, or 7.C.2. for broad scope licenses issued 

under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices authorized on the 

same license. 11A materials license (or part of a materials license) that transitions to fee category 14.A is assessed full-cost fees under 10 CFR part 170, but 

is not assessed an annual fee under 10 CFR part 171. If only part of a materials license is transitioned to fee category 14.A, the licensee may be 

charged annual fees (and any applicable 10 CFR part 170 fees) for other activities authorized under the license that are not in decommissioning 

status. 

■ 11. Revise § 170.51 to read as follows: 

§ 170.51 Right to dispute assessed fees. 

All debtors’ disputes of fees assessed 

must be submitted in accordance with 

10 CFR 15.31. 

PART 171—ANNUAL FEES FOR 

REACTOR LICENSES AND FUEL 

CYCLE LICENSES AND MATERIALS 

LICENSES, INCLUDING HOLDERS OF 

CERTIFICATES OF COMPLIANCE, 

REGISTRATIONS, AND QUALITY 

ASSURANCE PROGRAM APPROVALS 

AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 

LICENSED BY THE NRC 

■ 12. The authority citation for part 171 

is revised to read as follows: 

Authority: Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 

secs. 11, 161(w), 223, 234 (42 U.S.C. 2014, 

2201(w), 2273, 2282); Energy Reorganization 

Act of 1974, sec. 201 (42 U.S.C. 5841); 42 

U.S.C. 2215; 44 U.S.C. 3504 note. 

■ 13. Revise § 171.3 to read as follows: 

§ 171.3 Scope. 

The regulations in this part apply to 

any person holding an operating license 

for a non-power production or 

utilization facility issued under 10 CFR 

part 50 that has provided notification to 

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

(NRC) that the licensee has successfully 

completed startup testing, and to any 


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person holding an operating license for 

a power reactor or small modular 

reactor licensed under 10 CFR part 50 

or a combined license issued under 10 

CFR part 52 that has provided 

notification to the NRC that the licensee 

has successfully completed power 

ascension testing. The regulations in 

this part also apply to any person 

holding a materials license as defined in 

this part, a certificate of compliance, a 

sealed source or device registration, a 

quality assurance program approval, 

and to a Government agency as defined 

in this part. Notwithstanding the other 

provisions in this section, the 

regulations in this part do not apply to 

uranium recovery and fuel facility 

licensees until after the Commission 

verifies through inspection that the 

facility has been constructed in 

accordance with the requirements of the 

license. 

■ 14. In § 171.5, revise the definition of 

‘‘Budget authority’’ and add a definition 

for ‘‘Non-power production or 

utilization facility’’ in alphabetical order 

to read as follows: 

§ 171.5 Definitions. 

* * * * * 

Budget authority means the authority, 

in the form of an appropriation, 

provided by law and becoming available 

during the year, to enter into obligations 

that will result in immediate or future 

outlays involving Federal Government 

funds. The appropriation is an 

authorization by an Act of Congress that 

permits the NRC to incur obligations 

and to make payments out of the 

Treasury for specified purposes. Fees 

assessed pursuant to Public Law 115– 

439 are based on the NRC’s budget 

authority. 

* * * * * 

Non-power production or utilization 

facility means a production or 

utilization facility licensed under 10 

CFR 50.21(a) or (c), or 10 CFR 50.22, as 

applicable, that is not a nuclear power 

reactor or production facility as defined 

under paragraphs (1) and (2) of the 

definition of ‘‘production facility’’ in 10 

CFR 50.2. 

* * * * * 

■ 15. In § 171.11, revise paragraph (c) to 

read as follows: 

§ 171.11 Exemptions. 

* * * * * 

(c) The Commission may, upon 

application by an interested person or 

on its own initiative, grant an 

exemption from the requirements of this 

part that it determines is authorized by 

law and otherwise in the public interest. 

* * * * * 

■ 16. In § 171.15: 

■ a. Revise the section heading and 

paragraphs (a), (b)(1), (b)(2) introductory 

text, (c)(1), and (c)(2) introductory text; 

■ b. Remove paragraph (d); 

■ c. Redesignate paragraphs (e) and (f) 

as paragraphs (d) and (e); and 

■ d. Revise newly redesignated 

paragraphs (d) and (e). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 171.15 Annual fees: Non-power 

production or utilization licenses, reactor 

licenses, and independent spent fuel 

storage licenses. 

(a) Each person holding an operating 

license for one or more non-power 

production or utilization facilities under 

10 CFR part 50 that has provided 

notification to the NRC of the successful 

completion of startup testing; each 

person holding an operating license for 

a power reactor licensed under 10 CFR 

part 50 or a combined license under 10 

CFR part 52 that has provided 

notification to the NRC of the successful 

completion of power ascension testing; 

each person holding a 10 CFR part 50 

or 52 power reactor license that is in 

decommissioning or possession only 

status, except those that have no spent 

fuel onsite; and each person holding a 

10 CFR part 72 license who does not 

hold a 10 CFR part 50 or 52 license and 

provides notification in accordance with 

10 CFR 72.80(g), shall pay the annual 

fee for each license held during the 

Federal fiscal year in which the fee is 

due. This paragraph (a) does not apply 

to test or research reactors exempted 

under § 171.11(b). 

(b)(1) The FY 2021 annual fee for each 

operating power reactor that must be 

collected by September 30, 2021, is 

$4,749,000. 

(2) The FY 2021 annual fees are 

comprised of a base annual fee for 

power reactors licensed to operate, a 

base spent fuel storage/reactor 

decommissioning annual fee, and 

associated additional charges. The 

activities comprising the spent fuel 

storage/reactor decommissioning base 

annual fee are shown in paragraphs 

(c)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section. The 

activities comprising the FY 2021 base 

annual fee for operating power reactors 

are as follows: 

* * * * * 

(c)(1) The FY 2021 annual fee for each 

power reactor holding a 10 CFR part 50 

license or combined license issued 

under 10 CFR part 52 that is in a 

decommissioning or possession-only 

status and has spent fuel onsite, and for 

each independent spent fuel storage 10 

CFR part 72 licensee who does not hold 

a 10 CFR part 50 license or a 10 CFR 

part 52 combined license, is $237,000. 

(2) The FY 2021 annual fee is 

comprised of a base spent fuel storage/ 

reactor decommissioning annual fee 

(which is also included in the operating 

power reactor annual fee shown in 

paragraph (b) of this section). The 

activities comprising the FY 2021 spent 

fuel storage/reactor decommissioning 

rebaselined annual fee are: 

* * * * * 

(d)(1) Each person holding an 

operating license for an SMR issued 

under 10 CFR part 50 or a combined 

license issued under 10 CFR part 52 that 

has provided notification to the NRC of 

the successful completion startup 

testing, shall pay the annual fee for all 

licenses held for an SMR site. The 

annual fee will be determined using the 

cumulative licensed thermal power 

rating of all SMR units and the bundled 

unit concept, during the fiscal year in 

which the fee is due. For a given site, 

the use of the bundled unit concept is 

independent of the number of SMR 

plants, the number of SMR licenses 

issued, or the sequencing of the SMR 

licenses that have been issued. 

(2) The annual fees for a small 

modular reactor(s) located on a single 

site to be collected by September 30 of 

each year, are as follows: 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (d)(2) 

Bundled unit thermal power rating Minimum fee Variable fee Maximum fee 

First Bundled Unit: 

0 MWt ≤250 MWt ................................................................................................................. TBD ................ N/A ................. N/A. 

>250 MWt ≤2,000 MWt ........................................................................................................ TBD ................ TBD ................ N/A. 

>2,000 MWt ≤4,500 MWt ..................................................................................................... N/A ................. N/A ................. TBD. 

Additional Bundled Units: 

0 MWt ≤2,000 MWt .............................................................................................................. N/A ................. TBD ................ N/A. 

>2,000 MWt ≤4,500 MWt ..................................................................................................... N/A ................. N/A ................. TBD. 


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(3) The annual fee for an SMR 

collected under this paragraph (d) is in 

lieu of any fee otherwise required under 

paragraph (b) of this section. The annual 

fee under this paragraph (d) covers the 

same activities listed for the power 

reactor base annual fee and the spent 

fuel storage/reactor decommissioning 

reactor fee. 

(e) The FY 2021 annual fee for 

licensees authorized to operate one or 

more non-power production or 

utilization facilities under a single 10 

CFR part 50 license, unless the reactor 

is exempted from fees under § 171.11(b), 

is $80,000. 

■ 17. In § 171.16: 

■ a. Revise paragraphs (c) and (d); and 

■ b. Remove paragraph (e). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 171.16 Annual fees: Materials licensees, 

holders of certificates of compliance, 

holders of sealed source and device 

registrations, holders of quality assurance 

program approvals, and government 

agencies licensed by the NRC. 

* * * * * 

(c) A licensee who is required to pay 

an annual fee under this section, in 

addition to 10 CFR part 72 licenses, may 

qualify as a small entity. If a licensee 

qualifies as a small entity and provides 

the Commission with the proper 

certification along with its annual fee 

payment, the licensee may pay reduced 

annual fees as shown in Table 1 to this 

paragraph (c). Failure to file a small 

entity certification in a timely manner 

could result in the receipt of a 

delinquent invoice requesting the 

outstanding balance due and/or denial 

of any refund that might otherwise be 

due. The small entity fees are as follows: 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (c) 

NRC small entity classification 

Maximum 

annual fee 

per licensed 

category 

Small Businesses Not Engaged in Manufacturing (Average gross receipts over last 3 completed fiscal years): 

$485,000 to $7 million .................................................................................................................................................................. $4,900 

Less than $485,000 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1,000 

Small Not-For-Profit Organizations (Annual Gross Receipts): 

$485,000 to $7 million .................................................................................................................................................................. 4,900 

Less than $485,000 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1,000 

Manufacturing Entities that Have An Average of 500 Employees or Fewer: 

35 to 500 employees .................................................................................................................................................................... 4,900 

Fewer than 35 employees ............................................................................................................................................................ 1,000 

Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly supported educational institutions) (Population): 

20,000 to 49,999 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4,900 

Fewer than 20,000 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 1,000 

Educational Institutions that are not State or Publicly Supported, and have 500 Employees or Fewer: 

35 to 500 employees .................................................................................................................................................................... 4,900 

Fewer than 35 employees ............................................................................................................................................................ 1,000 

(d) The FY 2021 annual fees for 

materials licensees and holders of 

certificates, registrations, or approvals 

subject to fees under this section are 

shown table 2 to this paragraph (d): 

TABLE 2 TO PARAGRAPH (d)—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED

BY NRC 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses Annual 

fees 123

1. Special nuclear material: 

A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of U–235 or plutonium for fuel fabrication activities. 

(a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material (High Enriched Uranium) 15 [Program Code(s): 21213] .......................................... $4,643,000 

(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Form Used for Fabrication of Power Reactor Fuel 15 [Program Code(s): 

21210] ................................................................................................................................................................................ $1,573,000 

(2) All other special nuclear materials licenses not included in Category 1.A.(1) which are licensed for fuel cycle activities.

(a) Facilities with limited operations 15 [Program Code(s): 21310, 21320] ........................................................................... $1,037,000 

(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration facility 15 [Program Code(s): 21205] ............................................................ N/A 

(c) Others, including hot cell facility 15 [Program Code(s): 21130, 21133] ........................................................................... N/A 

B. Licenses for receipt and storage of spent fuel and reactor-related Greater than Class C (GTCC) waste at an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) 11 15 [Program Code(s): 23200] ...................................................................... N/A 

C. Licenses for possession and use of special nuclear material of less than a critical mass, as defined in § 70.4 of this 

chapter, in sealed sources contained in devices used in industrial measuring systems, including x-ray fluorescence analyzers. [Program Code(s): 22140] ............................................................................................................................................. $2,400 

D. All other special nuclear material licenses, except licenses authorizing special nuclear material in sealed or unsealed 

form in combination that would constitute a critical mass, as defined in § 70.4 of this chapter, for which the licensee shall 

pay the same fees as those under Category 1.A. [Program Code(s): 22110, 22111, 22120, 22131, 22136, 22150, 22151, 

22161, 22170, 23100, 23300, 23310] ...................................................................................................................................... $5,700 

E. Licenses or certificates for the operation of a uranium enrichment facility 15 [Program Code(s): 21200] .............................. $2,023,000 

F. Licenses for possession and use of special nuclear materials greater than critical mass, as defined in § 70.4 of this 

chapter, for development and testing of commercial products, and other non-fuel cycle activities.4 [Program Code: 22155] $4,300 

2. Source material: 


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TABLE 2 TO PARAGRAPH (d)—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED

BY NRC—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses Annual 

fees 123

A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of source material for refining uranium mill concentrates to uranium hexafluoride or 

for deconverting uranium hexafluoride in the production of uranium oxides for disposal.15 [Program Code: 11400] ............ $467,000 

(2) Licenses for possession and use of source material in recovery operations such as milling, in-situ recovery, heap-leaching, ore buying stations, ion-exchange facilities and in-processing of ores containing source material for extraction of metals other than uranium or thorium, including licenses authorizing the possession of byproduct waste material (tailings) 

from source material recovery operations, as well as licenses authorizing the possession and maintenance of a facility in 

a standby mode.

(a) Conventional and Heap Leach facilities.15 [Program Code(s): 11100] ........................................................................... N/A 

(b) Basic In Situ Recovery facilities.15 [Program Code(s): 11500] ....................................................................................... $47,200 

(c) Expanded In Situ Recovery facilities 15 [Program Code(s): 11510] ................................................................................ N/A 

(d) In Situ Recovery Resin facilities.15 [Program Code(s): 11550] ...................................................................................... 5 N/A 

(e) Resin Toll Milling facilities.15 [Program Code(s): 11555] ................................................................................................ 5 N/A 

(f) Other facilities 6 [Program Code(s): 11700] ...................................................................................................................... 5 N/A 

(3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct material, as defined in Section 11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from 

other persons for possession and disposal, except those licenses subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2) or Category 

2.A.(4).15 [Program Code(s): 11600, 12000] ............................................................................................................................ 5 N/A 

(4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct material, as defined in Section 11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from 

other persons for possession and disposal incidental to the disposal of the uranium waste tailings generated by the licensee’s milling operations, except those licenses subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2).15 [Program Code(s): 12010] .... N/A 

B. Licenses which authorize the possession, use, and/or installation of source material for shielding.16 17 Application [Program Code(s): 11210] ............................................................................................................................................................... $2,700 

C. Licenses to distribute items containing source material to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 40 of 

this chapter. [Program Code: 11240] ....................................................................................................................................... $8,900 

D. Licenses to distribute source material to persons generally licensed under part 40 of this chapter. [Program Code(s): 

11230 and 11231] ..................................................................................................................................................................... $5,100 

E. Licenses for possession and use of source material for processing or manufacturing of products or materials containing 

source material for commercial distribution. [Program Code: 11710] ...................................................................................... $6,300 

F. All other source material licenses. [Program Code(s): 11200, 11220, 11221, 11300, 11800, 11810, 11820] ...................... $8,500 

3. Byproduct material: 

A. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for 

processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of 

use: 1–5. [Program Code(s): 03211, 03212, 03213] ................................................................................................................ $27,400 

(1). Licenses of broad scope for the possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this 

chapter for processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number 

of locations of use: 6–20. [Program Code(s): 04010, 04012, 04014] ............................................................................... $36,400 

(2). Licenses of broad scope for the possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this 

chapter for processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number 

of locations of use: More than 20. [Program Code(s): 04011, 04013, 04015] ................................................................. $45,500 

B. Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for processing or manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 1–5. [Program 

Code(s): 03214, 03215, 22135, 22162] .................................................................................................................................... $9,600 

(1). Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for processing or 

manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 6–20. 

[Program Code(s): 04110, 04112, 04114, 04116] ............................................................................................................ $12,700 

(2). Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for processing or 

manufacturing of items containing byproduct material for commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: More 

than 20. [Program Code(s): 04111, 04113, 04115, 04117] .............................................................................................. $15,800 

C. Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter that authorize the processing or manufacturing and distribution or redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits, and/or sources and devices containing byproduct 

material. This category does not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit educational institutions whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4) of this chapter. Number of locations of use: 1–5. [Program Code(s): 02500, 

02511, 02513] ........................................................................................................................................................................... $9,000 

(1). Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter that authorize the processing or manufacturing and 

distribution or redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits, and/or sources and devices containing 

byproduct material. This category does not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit educational institutions whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4). Number of locations of use: 6–20. [Program Code(s): 

04210, 04212, 04214] ........................................................................................................................................................ $12,000 

(2). Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter that authorize the processing or manufacturing and 

distribution or redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits, and/or sources and devices containing 

byproduct material. This category does not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit educational institutions whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4). Number of locations of use: more than 20. [Program 

Code(s): 04211, 04213, 04215] ......................................................................................................................................... $16,200 

D. [Reserved] ................................................................................................................................................................................ 5 N/A 

E. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material in sealed sources for irradiation of materials in which the source 

is not removed from its shield (self-shielded units) [Program Code(s): 03510, 03520] .......................................................... $9,900 


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32180 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

TABLE 2 TO PARAGRAPH (d)—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED

BY NRC—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses Annual 

fees 123

F. Licenses for possession and use of less than or equal to 10,000 curies of byproduct material in sealed sources for irradiation of materials in which the source is exposed for irradiation purposes. This category also includes underwater 

irradiators for irradiation of materials in which the source is not exposed for irradiation purposes [Program Code(s): 

03511] ....................................................................................................................................................................................... $8,900 

G. Licenses for possession and use of greater than 10,000 curies of byproduct material in sealed sources for irradiation of 

materials in which the source is exposed for irradiation purposes. This category also includes underwater irradiators for 

irradiation of materials in which the source is not exposed for irradiation purposes [Program Code(s): 03521] ................... $72,100 

H. Licenses issued under subpart A of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material that require 

device review to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 of this chapter, except specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have been authorized for distribution to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 of this chapter [Program Code(s): 03254, 03255, 03257] ............................................................................ $8,700 

I. Licenses issued under subpart A of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material or quantities 

of byproduct material that do not require device evaluation to persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 

of this chapter, except for specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have been authorized for distribution to

persons exempt from the licensing requirements of part 30 of this chapter [Program Code(s): 03250, 03251, 03253, 

03256] ....................................................................................................................................................................................... $17,400 

J. Licenses issued under subpart B of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material that require 

sealed source and/or device review to persons generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter, except specific licenses 

authorizing redistribution of items that have been authorized for distribution to persons generally licensed under part 31 

of this chapter [Program Code(s): 03240, 03241, 03243] ........................................................................................................ $3,600 

K. Licenses issued under subpart B of part 32 of this chapter to distribute items containing byproduct material or quantities 

of byproduct material that do not require sealed source and/or device review to persons generally licensed under part 31 

of this chapter, except specific licenses authorizing redistribution of items that have been authorized for distribution to 

persons generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter [Program Code(s): 03242, 03244] ................................................. $2,700 

L. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for 

research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 1–5. [Program 

Code(s): 01100, 01110, 01120, 03610, 03611, 03612, 03613] ............................................................................................... $12,500 

(1) Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of product material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter 

for research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: 6–20. [Program Code(s): 04610, 04612, 04614, 04616, 04618, 04620, 04622] .............................................................................. $16,600 

(2) Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of this chapter 

for research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution. Number of locations of use: More than 

20. [Program Code(s): 04611, 04613, 04615, 04617, 04619, 04621, 04623] .................................................................. $20,700 

M. Other licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 30 of this chapter for research and development that do not authorize commercial distribution [Program Code(s): 03620] .............................................................. $13,400 

N. Licenses that authorize services for other licensees, except: (1) Licenses that authorize only calibration and/or leak testing services are subject to the fees specified in fee Category 3.P.; and (2) Licenses that authorize waste disposal services are subject to the fees specified in fee categories 4.A., 4.B., and 4.C.21 [Program Code(s): 03219, 03225, 03226] .... $15,200 

O. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 34 of this chapter for industrial radiography operations. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding authorized under part 40 of 

this chapter when authorized on the same license Number of locations of use: 1–5. [Program Code(s): 03310, 03320] .... $29,100 

(1). Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 34 of this chapter for industrial radiography operations. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding authorized 

under part 40 of this chapter when authorized on the same license. Number of locations of use: 6–20. [Program 

Code(s): 04310, 04312] ..................................................................................................................................................... $38,700 

(2). Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material issued under part 34 of this chapter for industrial radiography operations. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding authorized 

under part 40 of this chapter when authorized on the same license. Number of locations of use: More than 20. [Program Code(s): 04311, 04313] ........................................................................................................................................... $48,600 

P. All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D.18 Number of locations of use: 

1–5. [Program Code(s): 02400, 02410, 03120, 03121, 03122, 03123, 03124, 03140, 03130, 03220, 03221, 03222, 

03800, 03810, 22130] ............................................................................................................................................................... $9,900 

(1). All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D.18 Number of locations 

of use: 6–20. [Program Code(s): 04410, 04412, 04414, 04416, 04418, 04420, 04422, 04424, 04426, 04428, 04430, 

04432, 04434, 04436, 04438] ........................................................................................................................................... $13,100 

(2). All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D.18 Number of locations 

of use: More than 20. [Program Code(s): 04411, 04413, 04415, 04417, 04419, 04421, 04423, 04425, 04427, 04429, 

04431, 04433, 04435, 04437, 04439] ............................................................................................................................... $16,300 

Q. Registration of devices generally licensed under part 31 of this chapter ............................................................................... 13 N/A 

R. Possession of items or products containing radium–226 identified in § 31.12 of this chapter which exceed the number of 

items or limits specified in that section: 14

(1). Possession of quantities exceeding the number of items or limits in § 31.12(a)(4), or (5) of this chapter but less 

than or equal to 10 times the number of items or limits specified [Program Code(s): 02700] ........................................ $6,000 

(2). Possession of quantities exceeding 10 times the number of items or limits specified in § 31.12(a)(4) or (5) of this 

chapter [Program Code(s): 02710] .................................................................................................................................... $6,400 

S. Licenses for production of accelerator-produced radionuclides [Program Code(s): 03210] ................................................... $23,800 

4. Waste disposal and processing: 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 32181 

TABLE 2 TO PARAGRAPH (d)—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED

BY NRC—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses Annual 

fees 123

A. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of waste byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material 

from other persons for the purpose of contingency storage or commercial land disposal by the licensee; or licenses authorizing contingency storage of low-level radioactive waste at the site of nuclear power reactors; or licenses for receipt 

of waste from other persons for incineration or other treatment, packaging of resulting waste and residues, and transfer 

of packages to another person authorized to receive or dispose of waste material. [Program Code(s): 03231, 03233, 

03236, 06100, 06101] ............................................................................................................................................................... $22,500 

B. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of waste byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material 

from other persons for the purpose of packaging or repackaging the material. The licensee will dispose of the material by 

transfer to another person authorized to receive or dispose of the material. [Program Code(s): 03234] ............................... $15,800 

C. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of prepackaged waste byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material from other persons. The licensee will dispose of the material by transfer to another person authorized to 

receive or dispose of the material. [Program Code(s): 03232] ................................................................................................ $8,700 

5. Well logging: 

A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material, source material, and/or special nuclear material for well logging, 

well surveys, and tracer studies other than field flooding tracer studies. [Program Code(s): 03110, 03111, 03112] ............ $12,500 

B. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material for field flooding tracer studies. [Program Code(s): 03113] ........... 5 N/A 

6. Nuclear laundries: 

A. Licenses for commercial collection and laundry of items contaminated with byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material. [Program Code(s): 03218] ...................................................................................................................... $28,100 

7. Medical licenses: 

A. Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, or 

special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units, teletherapy devices, or 

similar beam therapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when 

authorized on the same license.9 Number of locations of use: 1–5. [Program Code(s): 02300, 02310] ................................ $27,100 

(1). Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units, teletherapy 

devices, or similar beam therapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for 

shielding when authorized on the same license.9 Number of locations of use: 6–20. [Program Code(s): 04510, 

04512] ................................................................................................................................................................................ $36,100 

(2). Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units, teletherapy 

devices, or similar beam therapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for 

shielding when authorized on the same license.9 Number of locations of use: More than 20. [Program Code(s): 

04511, 04513] .................................................................................................................................................................... $45,200 

B. Licenses of broad scope issued to medical institutions or two or more physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 70 of 

this chapter authorizing research and development, including human use of byproduct material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This 

category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when authorized on the same license.9

Number of locations of use: 1–5. [Program Code(s): 02110] .................................................................................................. $37,000 

(1). Licenses of broad scope issued to medical institutions or two or more physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 

70 of this chapter authorizing research and development, including human use of byproduct material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when authorized on the same license.9 Number of locations of use: 6–20. [Program Code(s): 04710] ............................................. $49,300 

(2). Licenses of broad scope issued to medical institutions or two or more physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 

70 of this chapter authorizing research and development, including human use of byproduct material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material for shielding when authorized on the same license.9 Number of locations of use: More than 20. [Program Code(s): 04711] ............................... $61,500 

C. Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in 

sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of source material 

for shielding when authorized on the same license.9 19 Number of locations of use: 1-5. [Program Code(s): 02120, 

02121, 02200, 02201, 02210, 02220, 02230, 02231, 02240, 22160] ...................................................................................... $16,800 

(1). Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source 

material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear 

material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of 

source material for shielding when authorized on the same license.9 19 Number of locations of use: 6–20. [Program 

Code(s): 04810, 04812, 04814, 04816, 04818, 04820, 04822, 04824, 04826, 04828] ................................................... $16,900 

(2). Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source 

material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear 

material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices. This category also includes the possession and use of 

source material for shielding when authorized on the same license.9 19 Number of locations of use: More than 20. 

[Program Code(s): 04811, 04813, 04815, 04817, 04819, 04821, 04823, 04825, 04827, 04829] ................................... $20,900 

8. Civil defense: 

A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material for civil defense activities. [Program Code(s): 03710] ............................................................................................................................................ $6,000 

9. Device, product, or sealed source safety evaluation: 


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32182 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

TABLE 2 TO PARAGRAPH (d)—SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED

BY NRC—Continued 

[See footnotes at end of table] 

Category of materials licenses Annual 

fees 123

A. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of devices or products containing byproduct material, source material, or 

special nuclear material, except reactor fuel devices, for commercial distribution .................................................................. $17,900 

B. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of devices or products containing byproduct material, source material, or 

special nuclear material manufactured in accordance with the unique specifications of, and for use by, a single applicant, 

except reactor fuel devices ....................................................................................................................................................... $9,300 

C. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of sealed sources containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material, except reactor fuel, for commercial distribution ..................................................................................... $5,500 

D. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of sealed sources containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material, manufactured in accordance with the unique specifications of, and for use by, a single applicant, 

except reactor fuel .................................................................................................................................................................... $1,100 

10. Transportation of radioactive material: 

A. Certificates of Compliance or other package approvals issued for design of casks, packages, and shipping containers.

1. Spent Fuel, High-Level Waste, and plutonium air packages ........................................................................................... 6

2. Other Casks ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6

B. Quality assurance program approvals issued under part 71 of this chapter.

1. Users and Fabricators ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 N/A 

2. Users ................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 N/A 

C. Evaluation of security plans, route approvals, route surveys, and transportation security devices (including immobilization 

devices) ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 N/A 

11. Standardized spent fuel facilities ................................................................................................................................................... 6 N/A 

12. Special Projects [Program Code(s): 25110] .................................................................................................................................. 6 N/A 

13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Compliance .................................................................................................................. 6 N/A 

B. General licenses for storage of spent fuel under § 72.210 of this chapter ............................................................................. 12 N/A 

14. Decommissioning/Reclamation: 

A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear material licenses and other approvals authorizing decommissioning, decontamination, reclamation, or site restoration activities under parts 30, 40, 70, 72, and 76 of this chapter, including master materials licenses (MMLs). The transition to this fee category occurs when a licensee has permanently ceased principal activities. [Program Code(s): 03900, 11900, 21135, 21215, 21325, 22200] ................................................................................... 7 20 N/A 

B. Site-specific decommissioning activities associated with unlicensed sites, including MMLs, whether or not the sites have 

been previously licensed .......................................................................................................................................................... 7 N/A 

15. Import and Export licenses ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 N/A 

16. Reciprocity ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 N/A 

17. Master materials licenses of broad scope issued to Government agencies.15 [Program Code(s): 03614] ................................. $340,000 

18. Department of Energy: 

A. Certificates of Compliance ....................................................................................................................................................... 10 $1,354,000 

B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) activities [Program Code(s): 03237, 03238] .................................. $117,000 

1Annual fees will be assessed based on whether a licensee held a valid license with the NRC authorizing possession and use of radioactive 

material during the current FY. The annual fee is waived for those materials licenses and holders of certificates, registrations, and approvals who 

either filed for termination of their licenses or approvals or filed for possession only/storage licenses before October 1 of the current FY, and permanently ceased licensed activities entirely before this date. Annual fees for licensees who filed for termination of a license, downgrade of a license, or for a possession-only license during the FY and for new licenses issued during the FY will be prorated in accordance with the provisions of § 171.17. If a person holds more than one license, certificate, registration, or approval, the annual fee(s) will be assessed for each license, certificate, registration, or approval held by that person. For licenses that authorize more than one activity on a single license (e.g., 

human use and irradiator activities), annual fees will be assessed for each category applicable to the license. 2Payment of the prescribed annual fee does not automatically renew the license, certificate, registration, or approval for which the fee is paid. 

Renewal applications must be filed in accordance with the requirements of part 30, 40, 70, 71, 72, or 76 of this chapter. 3Each FY, fees for these materials licenses will be calculated and assessed in accordance with § 171.13 and will be published in the Federal 

Register for notice and comment. 4Other facilities include licenses for extraction of metals, heavy metals, and rare earths. 

5There are no existing NRC licenses in these fee categories. If NRC issues a license for these categories, the Commission will consider establishing an annual fee for this type of license. 6Standardized spent fuel facilities, 10 CFR parts 71 and 72 Certificates of Compliance and related Quality Assurance program approvals, and 

special reviews, such as topical reports, are not assessed an annual fee because the generic costs of regulating these activities are primarily attributable to users of the designs, certificates, and topical reports. 7 Licensees in this category are not assessed an annual fee because they are charged an annual fee in other categories while they are licensed to operate. 8 No annual fee is charged because it is not practical to administer due to the relatively short life or temporary nature of the license. 9Separate annual fees will not be assessed for pacemaker licenses issued to medical institutions that also hold nuclear medicine licenses 

under fee categories 7.A, 7.A.1, 7.A.2, 7.B., 7.B.1, 7.B.2, 7.C, 7.C.1, or 7.C.2. 10This includes Certificates of Compliance issued to the U.S. Department of Energy that are not funded from the Nuclear Waste Fund. 11See § 171.15(c). 12See § 171.15(c). 13 No annual fee is charged for this category because the cost of the general license registration program applicable to licenses in this category will be recovered through 10 CFR part 170 fees. 14Persons who possess radium sources that are used for operational purposes in another fee category are not also subject to the fees in this 

category. (This exception does not apply if the radium sources are possessed for storage only.) 15 Licensees subject to fees under categories 1.A., 1.B., 1.E., 2.A., and licensees paying fees under fee category 17 must pay the largest applicable fee and are not subject to additional fees listed in this table. 16 Licensees paying fees under 3.C. are not subject to fees under 2.B. for possession and shielding authorized on the same license. 17 Licensees paying fees under 7.C. are not subject to fees under 2.B. for possession and shielding authorized on the same license. 18 Licensees paying fees under 3.N. are not subject to paying fees under 3.P., 3.P.1, or 3.P.2 for calibration or leak testing services authorized 

on the same license. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 32183 

19 Licensees paying fees under 7.B., 7.B.1, or 7.B.2 are not subject to paying fees under 7.C., 7.C.1, or 7.C.2 for broad scope license licenses 

issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human use of byproduct material, source material, and/or special nuclear material, except licenses for byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material in sealed sources contained in teletherapy devices authorized 

on the same license. 20 No annual fee is charged for a materials license (or part of a materials license) that has transitioned to this fee category because the decommissioning costs will be recovered through 10 CFR part 170 fees, but annual fees may be charged for other activities authorized under the license that are not in decommissioning status. 21 Licensees paying fees under 4.A., 4.B. or 4.C. are not subject to paying fees under 3.N. licenses that authorize services for other licensees 

authorized on the same license. 

■ 18. In § 171.17, revise paragraphs 

(a)(1) and (2) to read as follows: 

§ 171.17 Proration. 

(a) * * * 

(1) New licenses. (i) The annual fees 

for new licenses for power reactors and 

small modular reactors that are subject 

to fees under this part, for which the 

licensee has notified the NRC on or after 

October 1 of a fiscal year (FY) that the 

licensee has successfully completed 

power ascension testing, are prorated on 

the basis of the number of days 

remaining in the FY. Thereafter, the full 

annual fee is due and payable each 

subsequent FY. 

(ii) The annual fees for new licenses 

for non-power production or utilization 

facilities, 10 CFR part 72 licensees who 

do not hold 10 CFR part 50 or 52 

licenses, and materials licenses with 

annual fees of $100,000 or greater for a 

single fee category for the current FY, 

that are subject to fees under this part 

and are granted a license to operate on 

or after October 1 of a FY, are prorated 

on the basis of the number of days 

remaining in the FY. Thereafter, the full 

annual fee is due and payable each 

subsequent FY. 

(2) Terminations. The base operating 

power reactor annual fee for operating 

reactor licensees or the annual fee for 

small modular reactor licensees, who 

have requested amendment to withdraw 

operating authority permanently during 

the FY will be prorated based on the 

number of days during the FY the 

license was in effect before docketing of 

the certifications for permanent 

cessation of operations and permanent 

removal of fuel from the reactor vessel 

or when a final legally effective order to 

permanently cease operations has come 

into effect. The spent fuel storage/ 

reactor decommissioning annual fee for 

reactor licensees who permanently 

cease operations and have permanently 

removed fuel from the site during the 

FY will be prorated on the basis of the 

number of days remaining in the FY 

after docketing of both the certifications 

of permanent cessation of operations 

and permanent removal of fuel from the 

site. The spent fuel storage/reactor 

decommissioning annual fee will be 

prorated for those 10 CFR part 72 

licensees who do not hold a 10 CFR part 

50 or 52 license who request 

termination of the 10 CFR part 72 

license and permanently cease activities 

authorized by the license during the FY 

based on the number of days the license 

was in effect before receipt of the 

termination request. The annual fee for 

materials licenses with annual fees of 

$100,000 or greater for a single fee 

category for the current FY will be 

prorated based on the number of days 

remaining in the FY when a termination 

request or a request for a possessiononly license is received by the NRC, 

provided the licensee permanently 

ceased licensed activities during the 

specified period. The annual fee for 

non-power production or utilization 

facilities will be prorated based on the 

number of days remaining in the FY 

when the authorization to operate the 

facility has been permanently removed 

from the license during the FY. 

* * * * * 

■ 19. Add § 171.26 to read as follows: 

§ 171.26 Right to dispute assessed fees. 

All debtors’ disputes of fees assessed 

must be submitted in accordance with 

10 CFR 15.31. 

Dated: June 9, 2021. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Cherish K. Johnson, 

Chief Financial Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2021–12546 Filed 6–15–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 


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