NRC AMENDS LICENSING, INSPECTION AND ANNUAL FEES RULE
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The agency is required to collect nearly all of its annual appropriated budget through two types of fees. One type is for NRC services such as licensing and inspection activities. 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 (licensing and inspection services) and 10 CFR Part 171 (annual fees).

By law, the NRC must recover $479.5 million, or about 96 percent of its budget, for FY 2002 (October 1, 2001 - September 30, 2002). This does not include $23.7 million appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund for high-level waste activities. Neither does it include $36 million appropriated for NRC's activities related to homeland security. Funding for these activities is excluded from license fee revenues by law. The total amount to be recovered is about $26.2 million more than last year.

There is a $6 increase over FY 2001 in the hourly labor rate proposed for NRC services performed in the reactor program, and an $8 increase for services performed in the nuclear materials program. The proposed hourly rates are $156 for the reactor program activities and $152 for the nuclear material program activities.

The annual fees proposed by the NRC have been determined under the "re-baselining" method. The Commission decided to re-baseline annual fees this year based on the changes in the magnitude of the budget to be recovered through fees. Re-baselined annual fees would result in increased annual fees for a majority of licensees, including power reactors, fuel facility licensees, and radiography and broad-scope medical licensees. Annual fees would decrease for other categories of licensees, including non-power research reactors.

The proposed FY 2002 annual fees for some licensees are as follows:

The NRC is also proposing to clarify the Part 170 fee waiver provision for topical reports and certain other documents submitted to the NRC for review and approval; to clarify that a Part 171 annual fee exemption provision for reactors applies only to reactors licensed to operate; and to revise Part 171 to specifically authorize the assessment of annual fees to holders of Part 52 combined licenses after the Commission has authorized operation of the reactors.

Written comments on the proposed amendments to 10 CFR Parts 170 and 171 of the Commission's regulations should be received within 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. They should be addressed to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications staff. Comments also may be faxed to 301-415-1101, or submitted via the NRC's electronic rulemaking Web site, at http://www.nrc.gov. Select "rulemaking" from the tool bar and then "rulemaking forum."

NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site.

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Monday, December 08, 2008