NRC: News Release - 2004-048 - NRC Amends Licensing, Inspection and Annual Fees Rule


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NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs	Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001	E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
www.nrc.gov

No. 04-048

April 26, 2004

NRC AMENDS LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES RULE
Printable Version

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations for the licensing, inspection and annual fees it charges applicants and licensees for Fiscal Year (FY) 2004.

The agency is required to collect nearly all of its annual appropriated budget through two types of fees. One is for specific NRC services, such as licensing and inspection activities, that apply to a specific license. The other is an annual fee paid by all licensees, which recovers generic regulatory expenses and other costs not recovered through fees for specific services. These fees are contained in Commission regulations 10 CFR Part 170 (fees for licensing and inspection services) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees).

By law, the NRC must recover $545.3 million, which represents 92 percent of its budget for
FY 2004 (October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2004) less the $32.9 million appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level waste activities. The amount to be recovered in FY 2004 includes $51.1 million appropriated for NRC’s activities related to homeland security. The total amount to be recovered is about $19 million more than last year, which will fund increases in resources for homeland security activities, operating reactor license renewals and new reactor licensing.

The annual fees have been determined under the “re-baselining” method. The Commission decided to re-baseline annual fees this year based on the changes in the total budget and the magnitude of the budget allocated to certain classes of licensees. Re-baselined annual fees will result in increased annual fees compared to FY 2003 fees for three classes of licensees (power reactors, rare earth mills and transportation) and decreased annual fees for three classes (spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning, non-power reactors, and fuel facilities).

Finally, in two classes, material users and uranium recovery, annual fees for most categories of licensees will decrease.

The FY 2004 annual fees include the following representative classes/categories of licensees:

Class/Category of Licensees	FY 2004 Annual Fee
Power Reactors	$3,283,000
(Including spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning annual fee)
Rare Earth Mills	$157,600
Transportation-Approvals	$91,300
(Users and Fabricators)
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning	$203,000
Non-Power Reactors	$62,500
High-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility	$4,573,000
Low-enriched Uranium Fuel Facility	$1,533,000
Uranium Recovery (Conventional Mills)	$14,500
Radiographers	$11,900
Broad Scope Medical	$25,000
Distribution of Radiopharmaceuticals	$4,500
Certain Gauge Users	$2,500

The final rule was published in the Federal Register today, April 26. The proposed rule was published February 2, with a request for public comment. The agency received 14 comments, which are summarized, along with the agency’s responses, in the final rule Federal Register notice.