[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 103 (Tuesday, May 30, 2006)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 30722-30759]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-4815]
[[Page 30721]]
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Part II
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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10 CFR Parts 170 and 171
Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2006; Final Rule
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 103 / Tuesday, May 30, 2006 / Rules
and Regulations
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 170 and 171
RIN 3150-AH83
Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2006
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending the
licensing, inspection, and annual fees charged to its applicants and
licensees. The amendments are necessary to implement the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA-90), as amended, which requires that
the NRC recover approximately 90 percent of its budget authority in
fiscal year (FY) 2006, less the amounts appropriated from the Nuclear
Waste Fund (NWF) and for Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR)
activities. The required fee recovery amount for the FY 2006 budget is
approximately $624 million, which is increased by approximately $0.9
million to account for billing adjustments, resulting in a total of
approximately $625 million that must be recovered through fees in FY
2006.
DATES: Effective Date: July 31, 2006.
ADDRESSES: The comments received and the NRC's work papers that support
these final changes to 10 CFR parts 170 and 171 are available
electronically at the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the
Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site,
the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access
and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of
NRC's public documents. For more information, contact the NRC Public
Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737,
or by e-mail to [email protected]. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if
there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact
the PDR.
Comments received may also be viewed via the NRC's interactive
rulemaking Web site (http://ruleforum.llnl.gov). This site provides the
ability to upload comments as files (any format), if your web browser
supports that function. For information about the interactive
rulemaking site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher, 301-415-5905; e-mail
[email protected].
For a period of 90 days after the effective date of this final
rule, the work papers may also be examined at the NRC Public Document
Room, Room O-1F22. One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, MD 20852-2738. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy
documents for a fee.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tammy Croote, telephone 301-415-6041;
Office of the Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
II. Response to Comments
III. Final Action
IV. Voluntary Consensus Standards
V. Environmental Impact: Categorical Exclusion
VI. Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
VII. Regulatory Analysis
VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
IX. Backfit Analysis
X. Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act
I. Background
For FYs 1991 through 2000, OBRA-90 (Pub. L. 101-508), as amended,
required that the NRC recover approximately 100 percent of its budget
authority, less the amount appropriated from the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) administered NWF, by assessing fees. To address fairness
and equity concerns related to charging NRC license holders for agency
budgeted costs that do not provide a direct benefit to the licensee,
the FY 2001 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act (Pub. L.
106-377) amended OBRA-90 to decrease the NRC's fee recovery amount by 2
percent per year beginning in FY 2001, until the fee recovery amount
was 90 percent in FY 2005. The FY 2006 Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Act (EWDAA) (Pub. L. 109-103), as amended by the
Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address
Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006
(Pub. L. 109-148), extended this 90 percent fee recovery requirement
through FY 2006. As a result, the NRC is required to recover
approximately 90 percent of its FY 2006 budget authority, less the
amounts appropriated from the NWF and for WIR activities, through fees.
The required fee recovery amount for the FY 2006 budget is
approximately $624 million, which is increased by approximately $0.9
million to account for billing adjustments, resulting in a total of
approximately $625 million that must be recovered through fees in FY
2006.
The NRC assesses two types of fees to meet the requirements of
OBRA-90, as amended. First, license and inspection fees, established in
10 CFR part 170 under the authority of the Independent Offices
Appropriation Act of 1952 (IOAA), 31 U.S.C. 9701, recover the NRC's
costs of providing special benefits to identifiable applicants and
licensees. Examples of the services provided by the NRC for which these
fees are assessed are the review of applications for new licenses and,
for certain types of existing licenses, the review of renewal
applications, the review of amendment requests, and inspections.
Second, annual fees established in 10 CFR part 171 under the authority
of OBRA-90, as amended, recover generic and other regulatory costs not
otherwise recovered through 10 CFR part 170 fees.
The amount of the NRC's required fee collections are set by law and
are therefore outside the scope of this rulemaking. In FY 2006, the
NRC's total fee recoverable budget increased by $83.4 million from FY
2005 in response to increased workload. As such, most annual fees
increased. The budget, including the increases, was allocated to the
fee classes that the budgeted activities support. As discussed in more
detail below, another factor affecting the amount of annual fees for
each fee class is the estimated collection under part 170.
Additional factors will affect the NRC's required fee recovery in
future years. For example, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-
58) permanently extends the 90 percent fee recovery requirement
beginning in FY 2007. The Energy Policy Act also permanently removes
certain homeland security activities from the fee base beginning in FY
2007. Section 637 states that the NRC will not recover in fees:
(iv) amounts appropriated to the Commission for homeland
security activities of the Commission for the fiscal year, except
for the costs of fingerprinting and background checks required by
section 149 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2169) and
the costs of conducting security inspections.
Under this legislative requirement, the budgeted resources for all
generic homeland security activities (those activities that support an
entire license fee class or classes of licensees, such as rulemakings,
guidance development, and vulnerability assessments) will be removed
from the fee base beginning with the FY 2007 fee rulemaking. Under the
NRC's authority under the IOAA, the NRC will continue to bill under
part 170 for all licensee-specific homeland security-related services
provided, including security inspections and security plan reviews.
This legislative
[[Page 30723]]
change will provide fee relief for NRC licensees. However, the net
change in annual fees in FY 2007 will also depend on other factors,
especially the amount of the NRC's FY 2007 appropriated budget and the
allocation of these resources to the license fee classes and surcharge
categories (surcharge categories include the resources associated with
activities for which the NRC does not charge fees, as described in more
detail in Section III of this document), as well as any other policy
decisions of the Commission.
II. Response to Comments
The NRC published the FY 2006 proposed fee rule on February 10,
2006 (71 FR 7350) to solicit public comment on its proposed revisions
to 10 CFR parts 170 and 171. The NRC received three comments dated on
or before the close of the comment period (March 13, 2006) and four
additional comments thereafter, for a total of seven comments that were
considered in this fee rulemaking. The comments have been grouped by
issues and are addressed in a collective response.
A. Information Provided by NRC in Support of Proposed Rule
Comment. Several commenters requested a more detailed explanation
of significant fee increases. These comments requested that the NRC
provide licensees and the public with a reasonably detailed listing of
the major activities and their associated impact on the fees. These
commenters expressed concern that the information provided to support
the proposed rule was not adequate to allow for the full evaluation and
comment on the proposed fee rule. While these comments acknowledged the
availability of the work papers that provided information on the FY
2006 budget, they requested NRC provide an itemized accounting of the
major elements that comprise the annual assessment under part 171,
including a detailed description of the major contracts currently
outstanding. One set of comments set forth 26 specific questions on why
budgeted resources increased from FY 2005 to FY 2006 in a number of
areas. One comment stated that while the proposed rule stated that the
FY 2006 included budget increases for new plant licensing and security,
no information was available that would allow for the identification of
the contribution of either security or new plant licensing toward the
fee increase.
These commenters further stated that industry's ability to evaluate
the NRC's application of resources and priorities is impeded because
the NRC allocated 70 percent of its recoverable budget to the generic
assessment under part 171, while only 30 percent is recovered under the
discrete fee provisions of part 170. One commenter stated that there
was an expectation that generic fees would be reduced as new plant
applications are filed and costs are charged directly to an applicant
under part 170.
Response. Consistent with the requirements of OBRA-90, as amended,
the purpose of this rulemaking is to establish fees necessary to
recover 90 percent of the NRC's FY 2006 budget authority, less the
amounts appropriated from the NWF and for WIR activities, from
applicants and the various classes of NRC licensees. As with each
year's fee rulemaking, the FY 2006 proposed fee rule described the
types of activities included in the proposed fees and explained how the
fees were calculated to recover the budgeted costs for those
activities. Additional summary calculations were provided in the FY
2006 proposed fee rule: For each fee class, a table was presented
showing the aggregate calculations (e.g., total budgeted resources and
estimated part 170 collections). For each fee class, there was also a
summary explanation provided for the changes in fees and budgeted
resources.
In addition to the information provided in the proposed rule, the
supporting work papers were available for public examination in ADAMS
and, during the 30-day comment period, in the NRC Public Document Room
at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. The work
papers show the total budgeted full time equivalent (FTE) and contract
budgeted resources at the planned activity level for all agency
activities. These papers present an itemized accounting of all the
budgeted resources included in the fees, at the lowest level of detail
available agency-wide. The papers included extensive information
detailing the allocation of the budgeted costs for each planned
activity within each program to the various classes of licenses, as
well as information on categories of budgeted costs included in the
hourly rates.
Also to assist commenters, the NRC made available NUREG-1100,
Volume 21, ``Performance Budget: Fiscal Year 2006'' (February 2005),
which discusses the NRC's budget for FY 2006, including the activities
to be performed in each program. This document is available on the NRC
public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. The extensive
information available provided the public with sufficient information
on how NRC calculated the proposed fees. Additionally, the contact
listed in the proposed fee rule was available during the public comment
period to answer any questions that commenters had on the development
of the proposed fees. Therefore, the NRC believes that ample
information was available on which to base constructive comments on the
proposed revisions to parts 170 and 171 and that its fee schedule
development is a transparent process.
In the FY 2006 proposed fee rule work papers, the NRC improved the
organization of some of the reports to allow for increased
transparency. For example, a separate document was created for each fee
class and surcharge category to show the budget allocations for FY 2006
and FY 2005 at the planned activity level, thereby making it easier to
see the reasons for any fee changes between FY 2006 and FY 2005.
Accordingly, the proposed rule showed the total value of budgeted
resources allocated to a fee class and described the major reasons for
any fee change(s), and the supporting work papers clearly set forth the
changes in budgeted resources for each class at the planned activity
level for both FTE and contract dollars. For example, the proposed fee
rule stated that the power reactor annual fee increased due to an
increase in budgeted resources for activities such as regulatory
infrastructure for new reactor licensing activities (other examples
were also provided). The work papers showed that the budgeted resources
for that planned activity increased by approximately 42 FTE and $2.9
million in FY 2006, as compared to FY 2005.
In response to the comments with numerous detailed questions
requesting information on why the budget increased for certain planned
activities from FY 2005 to FY 2006, or requesting additional
information on the use of resources under a specific planned activity,
the NRC notes again that the purpose of this rulemaking is to establish
fees to recover most of the NRC's budget, as required by OBRA-90, as
amended. The NRC's budget and the manner in which the NRC carries out
its activities are not within the scope of this rulemaking. The NRC's
budget is submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and
Congress for review and approval. The Congressional budget process
involves meetings, testimony, press briefings, etc. The
Congressionally-approved budget resulting from this process reflects
the resources deemed necessary for NRC to carry out its statutory
obligations.
The purpose of the FY 2006 fee rulemaking, as with prior year fee
rulemakings, is to establish fees in a fair and transparent manner to
recover the
[[Page 30724]]
required portion of the NRC's budget. As such, the purpose of these
rules is not to justify the use or need for current year budgeted
resources, but to describe and take comment on the allocation of these
resources for fee calculation and purposes. For example, the rule and
supporting work papers are not intended to justify why the budgeted
resources for a given planned activity increased by a particular
percentage. (Note, however, the Performance Budget for each fiscal year
does provide the objectives of the budget and how it supports the
agency's Strategic Plan goals and strategies, and this justification is
part of the Congressional approval and Executive Branch review
process.) The rule and work papers show the value of the approved
budgeted resources, and most importantly for fee calculation purposes,
the fee classes and surcharge categories to which these resources are
allocated. As mentioned previously, the work papers provide this
information at the lowest level of detail available at the agency-
level, which is by planned activity.
Regarding the comments that expressed concern that too much of the
NRC's budget was designated for recovery under part 171, as discussed
in previous fee rulemakings, the NRC is not at liberty to allocate fees
indiscriminately between parts 170 and 171, because fee allocation is
controlled by statute. The NRC assesses part 170 fees under the IOAA,
consistent with implementing OMB Circular A-25, ``User Charges,'' to
recover the costs incurred from each identifiable recipient for special
benefits derived from Federal activities beyond those received by the
general public. Generic costs that do not provide special benefits to
identifiable recipients cannot be recovered under part 170. Further,
the NRC notes that, as required by OBRA-90, as amended, the part 171
annual fee recovery amounts are offset by the estimated part 170 fee
collections. The NRC's work papers clearly set forth the components of
these generic costs and how those costs are recovered through annual
fees. Additionally, the NRC notes that it has taken action to maximize
the amount recovered under part 170, consistent with existing law and
agency policy. For example, in FY 1998 the NRC began charging part 170
fees for all resident inspectors' time (63 FR 31840; June 10, 1998) and
in FY 1999 the NRC started charging part 170 fees for all project
manager activities associated with oversight of the assigned license or
plant (64 FR 31448; June 10, 1999). In FY 2003, the NRC amended its
regulations to allow the NRC to recover costs associated with contested
hearings on licensing actions involving U.S. Government national
security initiatives through part 170 fees assessed to the affected
applicant or licensee (67 FR 64033; October 17, 2002). Included under
this provision are activities involving the fabrication and use of
mixed oxide fuel. Additionally, beginning with the FY 2005 fee rule (70
FR 30526; May 26, 2005), the NRC revised its hourly rate calculation
formula to better reflect actual agency costs, resulting in higher
hourly rates. These higher hourly rates increased fee recovery under
part 170.
Similarly, in response to the comment that reactor generic fees
should be reduced as new plant applications are filed and costs are
charged directly to an applicant under part 170, the Commission notes
that it recovers (and will continue to recover) the costs of all
specific work relating to the review of new reactor or design
applications and pre-application activities through part 170 fees. For
example, the FY 1999 policy that established part 170 fee recovery for
all project managers assigned to a license or plant, applies to project
managers assigned to new reactor applications and pre-application
reviews. All other specific activities for these reviews are also
recovered through part 170 fees. This part 170 fee recovery reduces the
amount of budgeted resources that must be recovered through annual fees
to reactor licensees.
B. Specific Part 170 Issues
1. Hourly Fees
Comment. Several commenters expressed concerns about the increases
in the NRC's hourly rates associated with the proposed changes to 10
CFR 170.20. These commenters noted that the increases exceeded the rate
of inflation, and requested the NRC investigate ways to reduce the
hourly fees.
Response. The NRC's hourly rates are based on budgeted costs and
must be established each year to meet the NRC's fee recovery
requirements. As discussed in the proposed fee rule, the increases to
the Nuclear Reactor Safety (Reactor) Program and Nuclear Materials and
Waste Safety (Materials) Program rates are due to the recent
Government-wide pay raise and the more accurate allocation of agency
overhead to these programs and fee-exempt activities. The hourly rates
are calculated to recover all of the budgeted costs supporting the
services provided under part 170, including all programmatic and agency
overhead, consistent with the full cost recovery concept emphasized in
OMB's Circular A-25, ``User Charges.'' The NRC did not receive any
comments on ways to revise the hourly rate calculation methodology, and
notes that other comments, on this fee rulemaking and others, have
consistently supported the NRC in its efforts to collect more of its
budget through part 170 fees-for-services vs. part 171 annual fees.
Therefore, the NRC is retaining the hourly rate formula as presented in
the FY 2006 proposed fee rule. This results in hourly rates of $217 for
the Reactor Program, and $214 for the Materials Program. The NRC
recognizes that the higher hourly rates will have a greater impact on
licensees that receive more part 170 services, but believes this is
appropriate because the new rates more accurately reflect the costs of
providing these services.
2. Invoice Information
Comment. Several commenters stated that the Commission should
continue its efforts to provide invoices that contain more meaningful
descriptions of the work done by staff and especially contractors.
These comments stated that in the private sector, adequate
explanations, dates and times are provided to clients for clients to
fully understand the work performed. One commenter stated that if the
agency performs a large amount of work on a submittal from a single
licensee, billings should be frequent so that a licensee is better able
to track costs.
Response. The NRC appreciates the comments on this topic, and
believes that sufficient information is provided to licensees or
applicants on which to base payment of invoices. The NRC's invoices for
full-cost licensing actions and inspections contain details such as the
type of service for which the costs are being billed, the name of the
person or contractor performing the service, the date range the service
was performed, the number of professional staff-hours expended in
providing the service, the hourly rate, and the contractual costs
incurred. These costs are billed quarterly, which the NRC believes is
an adequate frequency to track and pay for these costs. Additionally, a
licensee or applicant who does not understand the charges, or who would
like more information to interpret the bill, may request additional
information from the NRC regarding the specific bill in question. The
NRC will provide all available data used to support the bill in
response to this type of request.
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3. Part 170 Fees to Federal Agencies
Comment. One commenter supported the Commission's proposal to
charge Federal agencies for specific services provided by the NRC,
agreeing that it is fair and appropriate to assess these fees to
Federal agencies in the same manner as other NRC licensees.
Response. The NRC appreciates the support for this proposal, and is
enacting this policy change in this rulemaking, as described in more
detail in Section III.A.3.
C. Specific Part 171 Issues
1. Annual Fees for Uranium Recovery Licensees
Comment. The NRC received four comments objecting to the large
increase in the annual fees for uranium recovery licensees. Some of
these commenters expressed concerns that the FY 2006 proposed fee
structure appears to unfairly discriminate against the uranium recovery
section by imposing a 120 percent increase in annual fees, and
requested that any required fee increase be similar to increases for
other classes of licensees. Some commenters stated that there continues
to be a lack of a reasonable relationship between the cost to uranium
recovery licensees of NRC's regulatory program and the benefit derived
from these services. Additionally, some commenters stated that the NRC
needs to address the issue of decreasing numbers of uranium recovery
licensees. Specifically, the concern was raised that as more states
become Agreement States and/or additional sites are decommissioned, the
number of NRC regulated sites continues to decline, leaving fewer
licensees to pay a larger share of the NRC's regulatory costs.
Some of these commenters acknowledged that the reallocation of
existing FTE to uranium recovery licensing and inspection activities
from other activities may be warranted, considering market forces and
expected licensing activities. These commenters stated that fee
increases might be more acceptable if they were accompanied by more
timely licensing actions, but some commenters expressed concerns that
there are still too few NRC staff on uranium recovery issues, and some
of these staff are relatively new to the field. Some commenters also
stated that the continued existence of remaining uranium recovery
facilities is in the public interest given the renewed interest in
nuclear power, and stated that large fee increases for these facilities
is not in the public interest. These commenters noted a previous
Commission comment which indicated the existence of a uranium recovery
facility was in the public interest. One commenter noted that the
increased fees and uncertainty of the timely review of licensing
actions makes it difficult for licensees to manage costs, which could
create a chilling effect on the development of new domestic uranium
recovery facilities.
Response. The NRC acknowledges that the FY 2006 uranium recovery
annual fee of $65,900 is significantly higher than the annual fees
charged to these facilities in FYs 2005 and 2004. (For FYs 2005 and
2004, the NRC overestimated the part 170 collections it would receive
from uranium recovery facilities, which resulted in lower part 171
annual fees.) However, the FY 2006 uranium recovery annual fee amount
is more similar to the annual fee amounts for FYs 2001 through 2003,
when, for example, the annual fee for conventional mills ranged from
approximately $53,000 to $111,000. Annual fees fluctuate from year to
year based on a number of factors, including the budgeted resources for
a license fee class. Additionally, because annual fees must recover all
fee class resources not recovered through part 170 fees, annual fees
are impacted by the part 170 fees collected from that fee class.
As explained in the proposed rule, the higher FY 2006 annual fee
for uranium recovery licensees reflects an increase in budgeted
resources for this fee class. The NRC appreciates the acknowledgment
that this budget change may be warranted to support uranium recovery
licensees. In response to the concern about the NRC's staffing of
uranium recovery issues and the timeliness of the review of licensing
actions, these issues are outside the scope of this rulemaking.
However, as noted in the FY 2005 final fee rule (70 FR 30526; May 26,
2005), the NRC does consider market forces and expected future
licensing activities in formulating its budget, and has a human
resources program in place to address future agency skill needs.
In response to concerns regarding decreasing numbers of NRC
licensees in light of more states becoming Agreement States, the NRC
notes the concerns that the ``last NRC licensee'' may have to pay for
the cost of the entire uranium recovery program are unfounded because
the NRC's fee calculation methodology considers the percentage of
uranium recovery licensees in Agreement States in establishing fees for
the uranium recovery fee class. As explained in the FY 2005 final fee
rule, the budgeted resources providing support to Agreement States or
their licensees are included in total surcharge costs, which are offset
by non-fee recovery funding provided by Congress. For example, if the
NRC develops a rule, guidance document, or database or other tracking
system, that is associated with or otherwise benefits Agreement State
licensees, the costs of these activities are prorated to the surcharge
according to the percentage of licensees in that fee class in Agreement
States (e.g., if 50 percent of uranium recovery licensees are in
Agreement States, 50 percent of these regulatory infrastructure costs
are included in the surcharge). Total surcharge costs are reduced by
the fee relief (i.e., direct appropriations from the General Treasury)
provided by Congress. To address fairness and equity concerns
associated with licensees paying for the cost of activities that do not
directly benefit them, as noted previously, the FY 2001 Energy and
Water Development Appropriations Act amended OBRA-90 to decrease the
NRC's fee recovery amount by two percent per year beginning in FY 2001,
until the fee recovery amount was 90 percent in FY 2005. To the extent
that this fee relief is insufficient to cover all surcharge costs,
these remaining surcharge costs are spread to all licensees based on
their percentage of the budget. (Note generic decommissioning costs for
the materials program are also included in the surcharge.)
In FY 2006, $3.5 million of the $72.8 million in total surcharge
costs was not covered by the 10 percent fee relief, and therefore is
included in licensees' annual fees. Eighty-four percent (the percentage
of the budget associated with reactors) of the $3.5 million in net
surcharge costs is included in reactor annual fees, and the remainder
is spread to all other licensees' annual fees. Accordingly, NRC's
uranium recovery licensees are not generally burdened with the costs of
regulating Agreement State licensees or any other costs not associated
with uranium recovery licensees (only to the extent that a small
portion of these costs are spread to all licensees through the net
surcharge). In FY 2006, the total surcharge cost allocated to the
entire uranium recovery class is approximately $13,000. Because DOE is
charged 50 percent of the total surcharge cost (as well as 50 percent
of all generic resources associated with the uranium recovery fee
class) for its UMTRCA Title I licensees, consistent with the
methodology adopted in the FY 2002 final fee rule (67 FR 42612; June
24, 2002), this leaves approximately $6,500 in total surcharge costs
allocated
[[Page 30726]]
to NRC Title II program licensees that are subject to annual fees.
This means about $1,300 of the $65,900 FY 2006 annual fee per
uranium recovery license is attributable to activities that do not
directly benefit these uranium recovery licensees. The remainder of the
annual fee reflects the budgeted resources associated with the
regulation of NRC's uranium recovery licensees, as shown in the
detailed work papers made available to support the proposed rulemaking.
As such, the NRC believes there is a strong relationship between the
cost to uranium recovery licensees of NRC's regulatory program and the
benefit derived from this program.
The NRC acknowledges that license fee classes with fewer licensees
are more impacted by changes to the budget and changes to part 170
collections. The uranium recovery fee class was reduced by four
licensees (two of which paid annual fees) in FY 2005 because regulatory
responsibility for these licensees was transferred to the State of Utah
in accordance with an Agreement under Section 274 of the Atomic Energy
Act of 1954, as amended, effective August 16, 2004. There are currently
six uranium recovery licensees, including a license for the DOE, paying
for the generic and other regulatory costs associated with the
regulation of the NRC's uranium recovery licensees. Because annual fees
must recover budgeted resources for a fee class not recovered through
part 170 fees, to the extent that part 170 fees do not completely
recover the costs of budgeted resources for part 170 activities, these
costs are included in annual fees. The fewer the licensees, the larger
the impact this has on the annual fee per license. (Because these
budgeted resources are for site-specific inspection and licensing
activities, they are not prorated to the surcharge category of
Agreement State Regulatory Support because the resources are budgeted
for the purpose of supporting only NRC licensees.) The NRC does note
that the increases to hourly rates enacted through this rulemaking will
enable the agency to recover more of the budgeted resources for
licensee-specific activities, and once implemented, will reduce costs
that must be recovered through annual fees.
In response to comments about the existence of uranium recovery
facilities being in the public interest, and the potential economic
consequences of fees on this industry, the NRC notes it has addressed
similar comments in previous fee rulemakings. The NRC has stated since
FY 1991, when the 100 percent fee recovery requirement was first
implemented, that it recognizes the assessment of fees to recover the
agency's costs may result in a substantial financial hardship for some
licensees. However, consistent with the OBRA-90, as amended,
requirement that annual fees must have, to the maximum extent
practicable, a reasonable relationship to the cost of providing
regulatory services, the NRC's annual fees for each class of licensee
reflect the NRC's budgeted cost of its regulatory services to the
class. The NRC determines the budgeted costs to be allocated to each
class of licensee through a comprehensive review of every planned
activity in each of the agency's major program areas. Furthermore, a
reduction in the fees assessed to one class of licensees would require
a corresponding increase in the fees assessed to other classes.
Accordingly, the NRC has not based its annual fees on licensees'
economic status, market conditions, or potential economic consequences.
Instead, the NRC has only considered the impacts that it is required to
address by law.
While the NRC acknowledges the previous Commission comment about
the existence of a uranium recovery facility being in the public
interest, this does not negate the NRC's legal obligation to collect
fees to recover the costs of regulating uranium recovery facilities.
2. Annual Fees for Fuel Facilities Licensees
Comment. One commenter expressed concern over the increase in
annual fees for fee category 2.A.1, UF6 conversion
facilities. The commenter expressed concern that the fee increase was
not explained in sufficient detail. In particular, the commenter did
not believe the changes in the fuel facility fee matrix (i.e., the
value of the effort factors for fee category 2.A.1) were explained in
enough detail to allow for informed public comment. This commenter also
stated that any fees for future 10 CFR part 40 or conversion facility
rulemakings not be allocated to fee category 2.A.1.
Response. The NRC established the methodology for calculating
annual fees for individual fuel facilities through public notice and
comment rulemaking (64 FR 31448; June 10, 1999), and the FY 2006 fee
rulemaking uses this same methodology. This methodology establishes
that the total budgeted resources for fuel facilities are allocated to
individual fuel facility fee categories based on the effort/fee
determination matrix. This methodology was also described in detail in
the FY 2006 proposed fee rule. In addition, the publicly available work
papers for the FY 2006 proposed rule provided detailed information on
the FTE and contract resources for each planned activity that were
allocated to the fuel facility fee class. The work papers also provided
information on all the values of the effort factors used in the fuel
facility matrix for FY 2006.
As noted in the FY 2006 proposed fee rule, the NRC revised the
effort factors for the UF6 conversion facility to better
reflect the effort level associated with safeguards activities such as
interim compensatory measures (ICMs). In response to the commenter's
request for additional detailed information on the basis of the values
of the effort factors, the NRC notes that before September 11, 2001,
this UF6 conversion facility had a `0' for safeguards and
security based on the fact that the facility had no security plan with
the NRC. Shortly after September 11, 2001, NRC issued an Order to this
facility requiring it to implement interim security upgrades. When the
NRC performed security assessments and reviewed implementation of the
ICMs in 2004, NRC determined (1) this UF6 conversion
facility needed to maintain additional security measures as part of its
baseline program, and (2) NRC needed to perform routine oversight of
the security program including licensing review of security measures,
inclusion of security measures in the license as part of license
renewal, and routine inspection of security programs. Therefore, based
on the new routine level of NRC effort for this facility, its score
increased from `0' to `5' in the matrix used for the FY 2006 fee rule,
which is `rebaselined' each year based on the most recent assessment by
the program and technical experts responsible for the regulation of
these facilities. Note that because of the timing of the fee rule each
year, the fuel facility fee matrix represents a `snapshot' of expected
effort levels at the beginning of the fiscal year. Therefore, a change
in effort level that occurs after that `snapshot' may not be reflected
until the next year.
Finally, in response to the comment that any fees for future part
40 or conversion facility rulemakings not be allocated to fee category
2.A.1, the Commission notes that it approved the initiation of a part
40 rulemaking on ground water protection at in situ leach uranium
recovery facilities on March 24, 2006 (see Staff Requirements
Memorandum--COMJSM-06-0001--Regulation of Groundwater Protection at In
Situ Leach Uranium Extraction Facilities; ML060830525). (While this is
a part 40 rulemaking, it relates to uranium recovery facilities, not
UF6 or
[[Page 30727]]
other fuel facilities.) In the referenced Staff Requirements
Memorandum, the Commission stated, ``The staff should plan on covering
the costs of this rulemaking not through part 171 fees for existing
uranium recovery licensees, but instead through the surcharge, which is
assessed to all NRC licensees paying part 171 fees.'' As such, in the
FY 2007 proposed fee rulemaking, the staff plans to propose to recover
the costs of this rule through the surcharge. Note that the part 40
rulemaking was not budgeted for in FY 2006, and therefore there is no
adjustment to the FY 2006 fees to reflect the fee recovery of that
rulemaking through the surcharge. Additionally, there were no other
part 40 or conversion facility rulemakings budgeted for in FY 2006, and
therefore, the FY 2006 annual fee for the UF6 conversion
facility does not include any resources for these activities. The NRC
will address the fee recovery of any other rulemakings that may be
budgeted for in future years through its future year fee rulemakings.
3. Elimination of Fee Payment Exception for Uranium Recovery Licensees
Comment. Several commenters requested that the quarterly payment
provisions for uranium recovery remain in effect, and that the NRC not
begin billing these licensees annually. One commenter stated that
quarterly payments allow licensees to better allocate budgetary
outlays.
Response. While the NRC appreciates the concerns raised by the
commenters, the NRC believes that there is insufficient justification
for retaining the fee payment exception for Title II uranium recovery
facilities, only. As discussed in the proposed rule, the NRC currently
bills licensees' part 171 fees annually if their annual fees are less
than $100,000, and quarterly if their annual fees are $100,000 or more.
However, the NRC bills Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees
quarterly in accordance with Sec. 171.19(b), regardless of the amount
of their annual fee. The NRC established this payment exception for
Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees in the FY 2001 final
rule (66 FR 32452; June 14, 2001) because the annual fees for these
licensees had been fluctuating just above or below $100,000. Since
then, uranium recovery license fees have been well below $100,000.
Because the basis of the existing exception is no longer a factor, as
well as that the exception is administratively burdensome to implement
with the current fee billing system, the NRC is eliminating this
billing exception for Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees.
Additionally, the NRC notes that there are benefits to the annual
payment of fees, which it believes further justify this change. This is
because the annual payment of fees may provide for more notice of
annual fee changes. When paying quarterly, the last quarterly payment
of the current fiscal year's annual fee must be for the entire
difference between that annual fee and the payments made in the first
three quarters of that year. This payment is due as of the effective
date of the final fee rule. When paying annually, licensees are billed
on the anniversary month of the license. This payment practice, as
established in the FY 1996 fee rule (61 FR 16203; April 12, 1996),
means licensees know exactly when they will be billed each year and
will know the exact fee amount in advance.
D. Other Issues
1. Recovery of Security Costs
Comment. Some commenters objected to the NRC collecting security-
related costs from licensees, while acknowledging that Section 637 of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005 will remove certain homeland security
activities from the fee base beginning in FY 2007. One commenter
mentioned that homeland security costs should be off the fee base
beginning in FY 2006. Other commenters questioned whether the funds
under the `Homeland Security Unallocated' planned activity in the
proposed rule have been allocated to specific activities.
Response. The NRC appreciates the concerns raised by commenters
regarding homeland security costs being funded through license fees. As
referenced previously, generic (i.e., not site-specific) homeland
security budgeted resources will be removed from the fee base beginning
in FY 2007, per the Energy Policy Act of 2005. However, these resources
are on the fee base in FY 2006. Therefore, the fees established in this
rulemaking include homeland security budgeted resources, consistent
with OBRA-90, as amended.
Regarding the question about the allocation of the `Homeland
Security Unallocated' planned activity, the NRC has now allocated these
resources to specific activities, and then to the fee classes and
surcharge categories which these resources support. Specifically, the
$4,498,000 under the `HLS Unallocated' planned activity in the proposed
rule has been distributed as follows: (1) $808,000 to Nuclear Material
Users/Homeland Security Information Technology, Control of Sources (for
the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards); (2) $420,000 to
Management and Support Information Technology Compliance/Homeland
Security Information Security (for the Office of Nuclear Security and
Incident Response); (3) $420,000 to Reactor Licensing/Homeland Security
Licensing/Homeland Security Mitigating Strategies (for the Office of
Nuclear Regulatory Research); and (4) $2,850,000 to Reactor Licensing/
Licensing Tasks/Risk Informing the Regulatory Process (for the Office
of Nuclear Regulatory Research).
As shown in the work papers, the resources for item 1 have been
allocated to the materials users fee class (and prorated to the
surcharge categories of Agreement State Regulatory Support and
Nonprofit Educational Institutions), and the resources for items 3 and
4 have been allocated to the operating power reactor fee class. The
resources for item 2 are treated as overhead, consistent with the
treatment of other resources in the Management and Support Program. In
the FY 2006 proposed fee rule, the resources associated with this
planned activity were allocated to the fee classes in a manner
consistent with how other homeland security resources were allocated.
2. NRC Budget
Comment. Several commenters stated that NRC fees should reflect NRC
efficiencies and provided suggestions for reducing NRC's budget and for
more efficient/different use of NRC's resources. Some of these
commenters addressed expenditures on homeland security, while others
suggested more generally that NRC reduce expenditures, streamline
processes, or otherwise perform activities more efficiently. Some
commenters suggested that changes in NRC's regulatory approach, such as
the reactor oversight process, should result in a reduced budget. Some
commenters included suggestions to reallocate resources dedicated to
the inspection of areas of plants that have little or no safety
significance, to efforts to risk-inform regulations, license new
reactor designs, and process combined operating licenses for new
plants. A number of comments suggested that Memorandums of
Understanding between the Commission and non-Agreement States regarding
the regulation of in-situ well fields would help to reduce costs to
licensees, as would the expansion of performance-based licensing and
the increased use of Safety and Environmental Review Panels.
[[Page 30728]]
Response. The NRC appreciates the importance of identifying and
implementing process efficiencies on an ongoing basis. As discussed in
previous fee rulemakings, NRC offices conduct process reviews every
year and rely on risk-informed practices to develop cost-efficient
budgets that will allow them to achieve the NRC's Strategic Plan
mission objectives. Nonetheless, the NRC's budget and the manner in
which the NRC carries out its activities are not within the scope of
this rulemaking. Therefore, this final rule does not address the
commenters' suggestions concerning the NRC's budget and the use of NRC
resources. As discussed previously, the NRC's budget is submitted to
OMB and Congress for review and approval. The Congressionally-approved
budget resulting from this process reflects the resources deemed
necessary for NRC to carry out its statutory obligations. In compliance
with OBRA-90, as amended, the fees are established to recover the
required percentage of the approved budget. The NRC will continue
efforts to ensure that the NRC carries out its statutory obligations in
an efficient manner.
3. Fees Predictability and Timing/Requested Fee Increase Phase-Ins or
Caps
Comment. Several commenters raised concerns that the timing of the
issuance of the fee rule makes it difficult for licensees to plan for
regulatory expenses within the framework of their normal budget cycles.
One commenter specifically noted that because the NRC's fiscal year
differs from the majority of licensees' fiscal years, and fee recovery
is not known until after a new calendar year begins, the process forces
licensees to estimate potential changes to the NRC fiscal year fee
structure six to eight months in advance of the fee rulemaking. To
address this issue, commenters suggested that the NRC publish an
estimate of fees for the following year, coincident with issuance of
the proposed fee rule each year. Some commenters recognized that while
it would likely be impossible for the NRC to offer exact projections,
the Commission should be able to develop reasonable estimates of the
next year's fees. Some commenters suggested that the agency's projected
total budget authority might be based on the five-year projection the
Commission prepares as part of its annual budgeting process, and
requested that this five-year projection be included in the Performance
Budget each year (NUREG-1100 series). One commenter requested that the
NRC's license fee estimates resulting from the anticipated FY 2007
budget be estimated and communicated to the commenter, with some
confidence, by June 2006. Other commenters requested that NRC consider
deferring a portion of the annual fee increase to the first quarter of
2007 to alleviate the unexpected burden imposed by large fee increases.
Some commenters suggested the Commission revisit the issue of
arbitrary fee caps or combining fee classes to lessen the impact of fee
changes. Some commenters expressed concern with hourly fees increases,
because total hourly fees are more unpredictable than annual fees and
create a substantial amount of uncertainty in a given licensee's annual
costs.
Response. The NRC acknowledges the concerns raised by these
commenters, and has addressed similar comments in previous fee
rulemakings. However, the timing of the NRC's required fee collections
is established by OBRA-90, as amended. In accordance with that statute,
the NRC must collect the mandated level of fees by the end of the
fiscal year to which they are attributed, in this case September 30,
2006. As such, the agency does not have the discretion to delay the
collection of these fees by deferring some fee increases.
Additionally, the timing of the fee rule each year is contingent
upon when the NRC receives its Congressionally approved budget. The
Commission makes every effort to issue the proposed fee rule as soon as
possible after receiving its appropriations. Because the NRC does not
know in advance what its future budgets will be (i.e., proposed budgets
must be submitted to the OMB for its review before the President
submits the budget to Congress for enactment), the NRC believes it is
not practicable to project fees based on future estimated budgets. For
example, the FY 2006 budget appropriation for the NRC reflected a
significant increase over the NRC's initial FY 2006 budget request
because of an increase in workload for new reactor and certain security
activities. Had the NRC proposed or established preliminary fees based
on the FY 2006 budget request, these estimated fees would have been
quite different from the fees ultimately assessed to licensees. The
fees reflected in this rulemaking reflect the final approved
appropriation that was signed by the President on December 30, 2005
(Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to
Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act,
2006).
Changes in economic markets, as well as the security and
policymaking environments, make predicting the NRC's future budgets
even more difficult than this was previously. However, even if the NRC
were able to reasonably predict a future year total budget, the annual
fee amounts are also highly sensitive to other factors, including the
allocation of these budgeted resources to license fee classes, the
numbers of licensees in a fee class, and the proportion of total class
costs recovered from part 170. (Part 170 revenue from a fee class is
particularly difficult to predict in advance, and more so for fee
classes with small numbers of licensees, whose annual fees are even
more sensitive to part 170 revenue estimates.) Estimating these factors
even further in advance than the NRC currently does would likely lead
to inaccurate future fee projections, which would be misleading to
licensees.
The NRC has previously considered requests to cap fee increases or
phase them in over a longer period of time. In the FY 1999 proposed fee
rule, the NRC solicited comments on the idea of a cap to fee increases
(64 FR 15876; April 1, 1999). While some comments supported this
proposal, others did not because they believed it would lead to some
licensees subsidizing the costs of other licensees. The NRC did not
adopt a fee increase cap in the FY 1999 final fee rule in light of
fairness and equity concerns with this approach and a lack of
overwhelming support from commenters (64 FR 31448; June 10, 1999). The
NRC again considered these strategies in the FY 2005 fee rule and came
to the same conclusion. The NRC continues to believe that the legal and
fairness concerns with these fee cap strategies or other phase-in
approaches outweigh the benefits of enhanced fee stability. Given the
requirements of OBRA-90, as amended, to collect most of NRC's budget
authority through fees, failure to fully recover costs from certain
classes of licensees due to caps or thresholds would result in other
classes of licensees bearing these costs. The NRC's fees are based on
the current year budgeted costs of activities benefitting the
associated license fee classes, and hence reflect the best assessment
of who should be paying for these costs. However, the NRC will continue
to strive to issue its fee regulations as early in the fiscal year as
is practicable to give as much time as possible for licensees to plan
for changes in fees.
In response to the comment that hourly rate charges are even more
difficult to predict than annual fees, the NRC notes that, if
requested, the NRC
[[Page 30729]]
program staff will provide a best estimate of hours required to
complete a specific licensing action, with the caveat that the actual
hours expended may differ from that estimate based on certain
circumstances (e.g., timeliness of submittals, quality of products
submitted for review).
III. Final Action
The NRC is amending its licensing, inspection, and annual fees to
recover approximately 90 percent of its FY 2006 budget authority less
the appropriations received from the NWF and for WIR activities. The
NRC's total budget authority for FY 2006 is $741.5 million, of which
approximately $45.7 million has been appropriated from the NWF, and
$2.5 million for WIR activities. Based on the 90 percent fee recovery
requirement, the NRC must recover approximately $624 million in FY 2006
through part 170 licensing and inspection fees and part 171 annual
fees. The amount required by law to be recovered through fees for FY
2006 is $83.4 million more than the amount estimated for recovery in FY
2005, an increase of over 15 percent.
The FY 2006 fee recovery amount is increased by $0.9 million to
account for billing adjustments (i.e., for FY 2006 invoices that the
NRC estimates will not be paid during the fiscal year, less payments
received in FY 2006 for FY 2005 invoices). There is no FY 2005
carryover to apply to FY 2006 fee collections. This leaves
approximately $625 million to be recovered in FY 2006 through part 170
licensing and inspection fees and part 171 annual fees.
The NRC estimates that approximately $183.3 million will be
recovered in FY 2006 from part 170 fees. This represents an increase of
19 percent as compared to the actual part 170 collections for FY 2005
of $154.1 million. The NRC derived the FY 2006 estimate of part 170 fee
collections based on the previous four quarters of billing data for
each license fee class, with adjustments to account for changes in the
NRC's FY 2006 budget, as appropriate, and the increase in the hourly
rates from FY 2005 to FY 2006. The remaining $441.7 million will be
recovered through the part 171 annual fees in FY 2006, compared to
$380.5 million for FY 2005, an increase of approximately 16 percent.
Table I summarizes the budget and fee recovery amounts for FY 2006
(individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding).
Table I.--Budget and Fee Recovery Amounts for FY 2006
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Budget Authority.................................. $741.5
Less NWF and WIR........................................ -48.1
---------------
Balance............................................. 693.4
Fee Recovery Rate for FY 2006........................... x 90.0%
---------------
Total Amount To Be Recovered for FY 2006............ 624.0
Less Carryover from FY 2005............................. -0.0
---------------
Plus Part 171 Billing Adjustments:
Unpaid FY 2006 Invoices (estimated)................. 3.2
Less Payments Received in FY 2006 for Prior Year -2.3
Invoices (estimated)...............................
---------------
Subtotal........................................ 0.9
===============
Amount to be Recovered Through Parts 170 and 171 Fees... 625.0
Less Estimated Part 170 Fees............................ -183.3
===============
Part 171 Fee Collections Required................... 441.7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The NRC has made four updates to the FY 2006 fee calculations since
the proposed rule. First, the NRC updated the part 170 estimates based
on the latest invoice data available. In total, the part 170 estimates
decreased by approximately $5.4 million; approximately $3 million of
this reduction is from the power reactor fee class. Second, the NRC has
updated its allocation of the `Homeland Security Unallocated' planned
activity, as described in Section II.D.1. This resulted in more
budgeted resources allocated to the power reactor fee class, and less
to fuel facilities and some other licensees in the Materials Program.
Third, the NRC has adjusted downward the amount of generic
transportation resources to be recovered from annual fees. This
adjustment takes into account the annual fee collections received for
transportation activities (fee categories 10.B.1 and 10.B.2 under Sec.
171.16) until the effective date of the FY 2006 final fee rule, which
decreased the required fee collections for most fee classes (see
Section III.B.3.h for details). (Note that this is only a one-time
adjustment because the 10.B.1 and 10.B.2 annual fees have been
eliminated as of the effective date of this rule. Therefore, licensees
should expect the value of these allocated transportation resources to
increase in future years.) Fourth, the number of NRC materials users
licensees has been updated to reflect the transfer of approximately 150
licensees to the State of Minnesota. This adjustment was made because
NRC entered into an Agreement with the State as authorized by Section
274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, effective March 31,
2006. This resulted in a slight increase in fees for some materials
users licensees because fewer NRC licensees are paying for budgeted
licensing and inspection costs. Each of these changes and their
associated impacts on each fee class is discussed in more detail in
Section III.B.3.
The net result of all these updates on the FY 2006 fees is small.
Fees for most licensees remained the same between the FY 2006 proposed
and final fee rules. The most significant change was a five percent
increase in the test and research reactor annual fee, which resulted
from a decrease in estimated part 170 fee collections for this fee
class. Other fees increased or decreased by a small amount as a result
of the changes listed in the preceding paragraph.
The FY 2006 final fee rule is a ``major rule'' as defined by the
Congressional Review Act of 1996. Therefore, the
[[Page 30730]]
NRC's fee schedules for FY 2006 will become effective 60 days after
publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. The NRC will
send an invoice for the amount of the annual fee to reactors, major
fuel cycle facilities, and other licensees with annual fees of $100,000
or more, upon publication of the FY 2006 final rule. For these
licensees, payment is due on the effective date of the FY 2006 rule.
Because these licensees are billed quarterly, the payment due is the
amount of the total FY 2006 annual fee less payments made in the first
three quarters of the fiscal year. Those materials licensees whose
license anniversary date during FY 2006 falls before the effective date
of the final FY 2006 rule will be billed for the annual fee during the
anniversary month of the license at the FY 2005 annual fee rate. Those
materials licensees whose license anniversary date falls on or after
the effective date of the final FY 2006 rule will be billed for the
annual fee at the FY 2006 annual fee rate during the anniversary month
of the license, and payment will be due on the date of the invoice.
The NRC has discontinued mailing the final fee rule to all
licensees as a cost saving measure, in accordance with its FY 1998
announcement. Accordingly, the NRC does not plan to routinely mail the
FY 2006 final fee rule or future final fee rules to licensees. However,
the NRC will send the final rule to any licensee or other person upon
specific request. To request a copy, contact the License Fee Team,
Division of Financial Management, Office of the Chief Financial
Officer, at 301-415-7554, or e-mail [email protected]. In addition to
publication in the Federal Register, the final rule will be available
on the Internet at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov for at least 90 days after
the effective date of the final rule, and will be permanently available
at http://www.access.gpo.gov.
The NRC is amending 10 CFR parts 170 and 171 as discussed in
Sections A and B of this document.
A. Amendments to 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
The NRC is establishing hourly rates to recover the full cost of
activities under part 170, and to use these rates to calculate ``flat''
application fees. Additionally, this rule establishes that Federal
agencies are subject to part 170 fees (with the exception of certain
Federally-owned test and research reactors); clarifies that the
tracking and monitoring of shipments necessary for certain licensing
actions is subject to full cost fees under part 170; establishes
additional import/export fee categories (subclasses); and makes minor
administrative changes for purposes of clarification, consistency, and
to eliminate redundancy.
The NRC is making the following changes:
1. Hourly Rates
The NRC is establishing in Sec. 170.20 two professional hourly
rates for NRC staff time. These rates are based on the number of FY
2006 direct program FTEs and the NRC's FY 2006 fee recoverable budget,
excluding direct program support costs. These rates are used in
assessing full cost fees for specific services provided, as well as
flat fees for certain application reviews. The rate for the Reactor
Program is $217 per hour. This rate is applicable to all activities for
which fees are assessed under Sec. 170.21 of the fee regulations (with
the exception of reactor decommissioning and import/export licensing
activities). The rate for the Materials Program is $214 per hour. This
rate is applicable to all activities for which fees are assessed under
Sec. 170.31 of the fee regulations, as well as the reactor
decommissioning and import/export activities under Sec. 170.21. In the
FY 2005 final fee rule, the Reactor and Materials Program rates were
$205 and $197, respectively.
The increases to the Reactor and Materials Program rates from FY
2006 to FY 2005 are due to the recent Government-wide pay raise and to
the more accurate allocation of agency overhead to these Programs and
fee-exempt activities. The hourly rate for the Materials Program
decreased slightly (from $215 to $214) between the FY 2006 proposed and
final rules because of some minor reductions in the allocation of
resources to this program because of the revised allocation of
resources under the `Homeland Security' planned activity (discussed in
Section II.D.1).
The hourly rate is derived by dividing the sum of budgeted
resources for (1) Direct labor; (2) allocated program overhead; and (3)
allocated agency overhead, by budgeted direct hours. This calculation
is performed for both the Reactor and Materials Programs, and excludes
the budgeted resources and associated overhead for fee exempt
activities. The specific method used to determine the two professional
hourly rates is as follows:
a. Direct program budgeted FTE, as well as all associated program
overhead (FTE and contracts), are allocated at the planned activity
level to the fee classes and surcharge (i.e., fee exempt) categories
based on who benefits from these activities. Direct contract support,
which is the use of contract or other services in support of the line
organization's mission-direct program, is excluded from the calculation
of the hourly rates because the costs for direct contract support are
recovered directly through either part 170 or 171 fees.
b. All management and support budgeted resources (FTE and
contracts), including resources associated with the Office of the
Inspector General, are allocated to each fee class and surcharge
category based on the percent of the total budgeted resources allocated
to each fee class and surcharge category in step a.
c. The hourly rate for the Reactor Program is calculated by
dividing the total budgeted resources (calculated in steps a. and b.)
allocated to the power reactor and test and research reactor fee
classes by the direct hours allocated to those classes. Similarly, the
hourly rate for the Materials Program is calculated by dividing the
total budgeted resources allocated to the spent fuel/reactor
decommissioning, fuel facility, transportation, materials users,
uranium recovery, rare earth, and import/export fee classes by the
direct hours allocated to those fee classes. Although an hourly rate
for surcharge activities is not needed, the appropriate allocation of
budgeted resources (including all associated overhead) and hours to the
surcharge categories is calculated to ensure that these budgeted
resources and hours are excluded from the Reactor and Materials Program
hourly rates.
The direct hours used in the denominator of this hourly rate
calculation continue to be calculated based on an estimate of 1,446
direct hours worked per direct FTE per year, as established in the FY
2005 fee rule (70 FR 30526; May 26, 2005). As explained in the FY 2005
fee rule, this estimate is based on data from the NRC's time and labor
system. The NRC continues to believe this estimate appropriately
reflects the direct time expended per direct FTE.
Table II shows the results of this hourly rate calculation
methodology. Due to rounding, adding the individual numbers in the
table may result in a total that is slightly different than the one
shown.
[[Page 30731]]
Table II.--FY 2006 Budget Authority to Be Included in Hourly Rates
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reactor Materials
program program
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Direct Program Salaries & Benefits...... $182.4M $41.3M
Program Overhead Salaries & Benefits, 81.9M 17.8M
and Contract Support...................
Allocated Agency Management and Support. 151.8M 34.0M
Subtotal............................ 416.1M 93.1M
Less Offsetting Receipts................ -0.1M -0.0M
Total Budget Included in Hourly Rate $416.0M $93.1M
Program Direct FTEs..................... 1,322.8 300.3
Professional Hourly Rate (Total Budget $217 $214
Included in Hourly Rate divided by
Program Direct FTE times 1,446 hours)..
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As shown in Table II, dividing the $416 million budgeted amount
(rounded) included in the hourly rate for the Reactor Program by the
Reactor Program direct hours (1,322.8 FTE times 1,446 hours) results in
an hourly rate of $217 for the Reactor Program for FY 2006. Similarly,
dividing the $93.1 million budgeted amount (rounded) included in the
hourly rate for the Materials Program by the program direct hours
(300.3 FTE times 1,446 hours) results in an hourly rate of $214 for the
Materials Program in FY 2006. These hourly rates are rounded to the
nearest whole dollar.
2. Fee Adjustments
The NRC is adjusting the current part 170 fees in Sec. Sec. 170.21
and 170.31 to reflect the changes in the hourly rates. The full cost
fees assessed under Sec. Sec. 170.21 and 170.31 are based on the
professional hourly rates and any direct program support (contractual
services) costs expended by the NRC. Any professional hours expended on
or after the effective date of the final rule will be assessed at the
FY 2006 hourly rates.
The fees in Sec. Sec. 170.21 and 170.31 that are based on the
average time to review an application (flat fees) have been adjusted to
reflect the change in the Materials Program professional hourly rate
from FY 2005. The flat fees are calculated by multiplying the average
professional staff hours needed to process the licensing actions by the
Materials Program professional hourly rate for FY 2006. The agency
estimates the average professional staff hours needed to process
licensing actions every other year as part of its biennial review of
fees performed in compliance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of
1990 (Pub. L. 101-578). (This review was last performed as part of the
FY 2005 fee rulemaking.) The amounts of the materials licensing flat
fees are rounded so that the fees would be convenient to the user and
the effects of rounding would be ``de minimis.'' Fees under $1,000 are
rounded to the nearest $10, fees that are greater than $1,000 but less
than $100,000 are rounded to the nearest $100, and fees that are
greater than $100,000 are rounded to the nearest $1,000.
The licensing flat fees are applicable for fee categories K.1
through K.5 of Sec. 170.21, and fee categories 1.C, 1.D, 2.B, 2.C, 3.A
through 3.P, 4.B through 9.D, 10.B, 15.A through 15.R, 16, and 17 of
Sec. 170.31. The higher hourly rate of $214 for the Materials Program
is the reason for the increases in the licensing fees. Because the
hourly rate decreased by one dollar between the FY 2006 proposed and
final fee rules, some of the flat fees decreased by a small amount
since the FY 2006 proposed fee rule. Applications filed on or after the
effective date of the final rule will be subject to the revised fees in
this rule.
3. Charging Part 170 Fees to Federal Agencies/Fees for Research
Reactors
The NRC is amending Sec. Sec. 170.11 and 170.31 to provide that
part 170 fees will be assessed to Federal agencies where applicable.
Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Section 623), the NRC was granted
authority to assess fees for specific services provided to any Federal
government agency which applies to the NRC for, or is issued by the
NRC, a license or certificate. The NRC currently recovers the costs of
licensee-specific activities for non-Federal licensees, applicants, and
certificate holders under part 170, but lacked the authority to assess
these fees to Federal agencies (other than the Tennessee Valley
Authority) until the effective date of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Because activities such as processing license applications provide
a specific benefit to the recipient, the Commission believes it is fair
and appropriate to implement this new authority and thereby recover the
costs of providing specific services to Federal agencies through part
170 fees. The NRC has provided written notification to Federal agencies
that have an NRC license or certificate that the NRC plans to implement
this new authority in the FY 2006 final fee rule, so that they may
include this cost in their budgets.
The Commission notes that this provision of the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 cannot legally be applied to services the NRC provides to
Federal agencies that are not NRC licensees, certificate holders, or
applicants. Therefore, the NRC will not charge part 170 fees to Federal
agencies for activities that are not subject to NRC licensing. Examples
of NRC activities not related to a license or certificate, and
therefore not subject to part 170 fees, include those to support the
DOE in its decommissioning of the West Valley site in New York, and
technical assistance provided to the Department of Transportation for
certain foreign approved transport package designs for import/export
(for which NRC does not have regulatory authority).
Under these changes to part 170, Federal agency licensees,
certificate holders, and applicants will be assessed fees in the same
manner as are non-Federal agency licensees, certificate holders, and
applicants. This means that Federal agencies will be required to pay
part 170 fees for NRC services provided, including reviews of
applications and other licensing actions, inspections, and
decommissioning activities. This change does not require the
calculation of any new fee amounts or establishment of new fee
categories for Federal agencies. The only exception is that the NRC is
establishing a new flat application fee of $17,800 for fee category 17,
``Master materials licenses of broad scope issued to Government
agencies,'' under Sec. 170.31. There is currently no application fee
listed for this fee category because the only licensees in this fee
category are for the Federal government. The flat application fee
established in this rule was calculated in the same manner as other
flat application fees; it equals the product of the average hours
estimated to process these types of applications and the Materials
Program hourly rate.
[[Page 30732]]
Because of insufficient data on average processing times for these
master materials licenses (there are only three such NRC licensees),
the NRC based its estimate of average processing time for master
materials licensees on other license applications of similar
complexity.
Additionally, to implement this new authority, the NRC is revising
fee category 18.A under Sec. 170.31 to specify that full cost fees
will be assessed for licensing and inspection activities associated
with DOE's part 71 Certificates of Compliance.
The NRC is exempting from part 170 fees Federally-owned test and
research reactors that meet the fee exemption criteria set forth in
Section 2903 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Pub. L. 102-486). [These
criteria relate to factors such as thermal power level and whether the
reactor contains a liquid fuel loading, and are listed under both
Sec. Sec. 170.11(a)(9) and 171.11(a)(2). Three Federally-owned
research reactors currently meet this criteria (reactors at the
Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, the U.S.
Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado, and the Armed Forces
Radiobiological Institute in Bethesda, Maryland)]. As implemented by
Sec. 171.11(a)(2), Federally-owned test and research reactors that
meet the statutory criteria are already exempt from paying annual fees.
At the time Congress enacted this fee exemption, however, Federally-
owned reactors (other than the Tennessee Valley Authority) were not
subject to part 170 fees. Therefore, the exemption criteria set forth
in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 did not specifically address part 170
fees. Now that NRC has the authority to charge part 170 fees to
Federally-owned reactors, the NRC believes that it is appropriate as a
matter of policy to apply the same criteria to Federally-owned test and
research reactors, and exempt those meeting the criteria from part 170
fees. State-owned reactors meeting this same criteria are currently
exempt from part 170 fees under Sec. 170.11(a)(9). The Commission
explained the rationale for this decision in the FY 1994 fee rule (59
FR 36895; July 20, 1994) by stating that the NRC believed this was ``*
* * consistent with the legislative intent of the Energy Policy Act of
1992 that government-owned research reactors be exempt from fees if
they meet the technical design criteria of the exemption and are used
primarily for educational training and academic research purposes.''
The Commission continues to believe this is consistent with the intent
of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and therefore is exempting these
Federally-owned reactors from part 170 fees.
Note the NRC is clarifying that the fee exemption in Sec.
170.11(a)(9) remains in effect even after the reactors meeting this
criteria are no longer authorized to operate in the revision to that
paragraph.
4. Charging Part 170 Fees for Tracking and Monitoring Shipments of
Classified Matter
The NRC is clarifying that full cost part 170 fees will be assessed
to track and monitor shipments of classified materials (e.g.,
components of gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facilities). The NRC
currently has under review applications to build and operate gas
centrifuge uranium enrichment facilities. Because of the sensitive
technology, many of the components associated with these facilities are
classified as Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (Pub.
L. 83-703), as amended. Furthermore, some of these components are
voluminous and cannot be transported under the standard classified
matter transportation requirements of Sec. 95.39(b) and (c) (e.g.,
double wrapping, marking, and tracking). In these cases, the NRC
requires the licensee or applicant to submit a security plan under
Sec. 95.39(e) for transporting this non-standard classified matter.
One aspect of classified matter transportation security plans is
continuous telemetric position monitoring and tracking of shipments of
classified matter, including a capability for notification of local law
enforcement officials and the NRC in the case of an emergency.
Because of the inherent national security concerns associated with
the transportation of Restricted Data components and the current threat
environment, the NRC has not considered permitting licensees to
establish their own telemetric position monitoring and tracking
capability for shipments of classified matter, nor to contract with a
commercial service to meet this requirement. Instead, the NRC intends
to require that these shipments be tracked and monitored by a U.S.
government owned or operated system (e.g., systems operated by the U.S.
Departments of Defense or Energy). As such, the NRC is establishing an
interagency agreement and memorandum of understanding and reimbursable
agreement with another government agency to provide the necessary
tracking, monitoring, and communications center capabilities.
Accordingly, the costs incurred by the NRC from this other government
agency in monitoring these shipments will be passed on to the
applicable licensee in full. While this is a new activity, the recovery
of these costs through part 170 fees is consistent with the NRC's
existing full cost recovery policy for licensing activities.
The NRC is making this clarification by modifying the definition of
``special projects'' in Sec. 170.3 to include this type of activity.
This definition currently includes examples of special projects.
Including this activity as an example would ensure that licensees are
informed that these activities are subject to part 170 fees.
5. Revisions To Import/Export Fee Categories
The NRC is modifying the import and export fee categories at Sec.
170.31 to reflect revisions to 10 CFR part 110 that were published on
July 1, 2005 (70 FR 37985), effective December 28, 2005. These part 110
revisions take into account provisions in the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of
Radioactive Sources concerning the import and export of radioactive
sources, and the supplemental IAEA guidance on the Import and Export of
Radioactive Sources.
The specific radioactive material and quantities newly covered by
NRC regulations, per the July 1, 2005 revisions, are listed in Table 1
of Appendix P to part 110, and are essentially identical to the list of
radioactive materials in Category 1 and Category 2 of the Code of
Conduct. The amendments to part 110 require NRC authorization of
certain exports and imports by specific license. As a result of these
changes, it is necessary to add additional import/export fee categories
under Sec. 170.31 to accommodate these new types of licensees.
Therefore, the NRC is modifying fee category 15 at Sec. 170.31 to
include separate fee categories for Category 1 Exports (fee categories
15.F through 15.I), Category 2 Exports (fee categories 15.J through
15.L), Category 1 Imports (fee categories 15.M and 15.N), Category 2
Imports (fee category O), Category 1 Imports with Agent and Multiple
Licensees (fee categories 15.P and 15.Q), and minor amendments to
Category 1 and 2 Exports and Imports (fee category 15.R). As with other
flat fees established under Sec. 170.31, the fees associated with each
fee category reflect the NRC's estimate of average hours required to
process the license application, multiplied by the hourly rate. These
changes also establish that for a combined import and export license
application for material listed in Appendix P to part 110, only the
higher
[[Page 30733]]
of the two applicable fee amounts must be paid. This is because the
difference in level of effort associated with processing a combined
import and export license versus processing just the export license
(for the material listed in Appendix P to part 110, only) is
negligible.
6. Administrative Amendments
The NRC is eliminating the reference to ``route approvals for
shipment of radioactive materials'' in the definition of ``special
projects'' under Sec. 170.3. This activity is currently covered under
Sec. 170.31, fee category 10 C., which establishes full cost recovery
for this and other related activities; therefore, the additional
reference to this activity as a special project (for which the NRC
assesses full cost fees) is redundant.
The NRC is also modifying Sec. 170.11(a)(4) to clarify that the
fee exemption does not apply if an institution meets at least one of
the criteria listed in Sec. 170.11(a)(4)(i)-(iv). Currently, these
criteria are connected with an ``and,'' rather than an ``or,'' making
it unclear whether the fee exemption in Sec. 170.11(a)(4) applies to
an institution that meets one of the criteria. This revised language is
consistent with the language used for this same exemption as applied to
part 171 fees under Sec. 171.11(a)(1) and will enhance the clarity of
this provision.
Additionally, the NRC is clarifying which hourly rate is applicable
to which activities. Currently, Sec. 170.20 states that the Reactor
Program rate is applicable to Sec. 170.21 activities, and the
Materials Program rate is applicable to Sec. 170.31 activities. The
NRC is amending Sec. 170.20 to clarify that (1) the Reactor Program
hourly rate is applicable to all activities for which fees are assessed
under Sec. 170.21 of the fee regulations, with the exception of
reactor decommissioning and import/export licensing activities, and (2)
the Materials Program rate is applicable to all activities for which
fees are assessed under Sec. 170.31 of the fee regulations, as well as
the reactor decommissioning and import/export activities under Sec.
170.21. This change better aligns the applicable hourly rate with the
data used to calculate that rate (i.e., reactor decommissioning
resources are included in the Materials Program hourly rate).
Finally, the NRC is creating a new fee category under Sec. 170.31,
which would effectively split the current fee category 1.A.2.b
(``other'' fuel facilities) into two categories, one for gas centrifuge
enrichment demonstration facilities and one for hot cell facilities.
This change keeps the fee categories under parts 170 and 171
consistent, in light of the same change the NRC made to Sec. 171.16.
This change does not affect part 170 fee recovery requirements, as each
category is subject to full cost part 170 fees where applicable. This
change results in different annual fees for the existing fee category
1.A.2.b and the new fee category 1.A.2.c, as explained in more detail
under Section III.B.3.a of this document.
In summary, the NRC is making the following changes to 10 CFR part
170--
1. Establishing revised Reactor and Materials Program hourly rates;
2. Revising the licensing fees to be assessed to reflect the
Reactor and Materials Program hourly rates;
3. Amending Sec. Sec. 170.11 and 170.31 to provide that part 170
fees will be assessed to Federal agencies where applicable (except for
certain Federally-owned research reactors);
4. Revising Sec. 170.3 to clarify that full cost part 170 fees
will be assessed to track and monitor shipments of classified matter;
5. Modifying the import and export fee categories under Sec.
170.31; and
6. Making minor administrative changes for purposes of
clarification, consistency, and to eliminate redundancy.
B. Amendments to 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
The NRC is making the following changes under part 171: Proceeding
with a presumption in favor of rebaselining annual fees beginning with
the final FY 2006 rule; recovering generic transportation costs as part
of other existing annual fees; revising the annual fees for FY 2006 to
reflect the FY 2006 budget, changes in the number of NRC licensees, and
the division of an existing fuel facilities fee category into two
categories; eliminating the existing fee payment method exception for
Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees; and making an
administrative change to clarify the definition of ``overhead and
general and administrative costs.'' The amendments are described below.
1. Rebaselining Annual Fees
The NRC uses one of two methods to determine the amounts of the
annual fees established in its fee rule each year. One method is
``rebaselining,'' for which the NRC's budget is analyzed in detail and
budgeted resources are allocated to fee classes and categories of
licensees. The second method is the ``percent change'' method, for
which fees are revised based on the percent change in the total budget,
taking into account other adjustments, such as the number of licensees
and the projected revenue to be received from part 170 fees.
The NRC is establishing rebaselined annual fees for FY 2006, and is
proceeding with a presumption in favor of rebaselining when determining
annual fees for FY 2007 and beyond. The Commission's previous policy
regarding the method of calculating annual fees, made in the statement
of consideration of the FY 1995 fee rule (60 FR 32218; June 20, 1995),
and further explained in the statement of consideration of the FY 1999
fee rule (64 FR 31448; June 10, 1999), was that annual fees would be
rebaselined at least every third year, and more frequently if there was
a substantial change in the total NRC budget or in the magnitude of the
budget allocated to a specific class of licensees. The NRC is
establishing a presumption in favor of rebaselining beginning with the
FY 2006 rulemaking because (1) rebaselining is usually appropriate
since there is often a substantial change in the total NRC budget or in
the magnitude of the budget allocated to a specific class of licensees,
and (2) delaying rebaselining can result in larger fee changes in the
years when fees are rebaselined. The use of the percent change method
will remain an option should there be a year in which there are no
significant changes to the total budget or individual programs for fee
classes. The NRC expects that in most years, annual fees will be
rebaselined.
Until FY 1996, annual fees were determined using the rebaselining
method. In an effort to stabilize fees, the NRC decided to adjust
annual fees using the percent change method beginning in FY 1996,
unless there was a substantial change in the NRC budget or in the
magnitude of a specific budget allocation to a class of licensees. Fees
were determined using the percent change method in the FYs 1996-1998
fee rules.
The NRC rebaselined fees in the FY 1999 fee rule, and solicited
comment on the use and frequency of the percent change method. Some
commenters, such as the Nuclear Energy Institute, supported
rebaselining every year, believing that this method best supports the
accurate alignment of costs to fee classes and the in-depth review
needed to maximize agency efficiency. Other commenters appreciated the
fee stability provided by the percent change method.
[[Page 30734]]
In response to these comments, the Commission determined that annual
fees should be rebaselined every three years, or more frequently if
there is a substantial change in the total NRC budget or in the
magnitude of the budget allocated to a specific class of licensees.
Fees were calculated using the percent change method in FY 2000, and
were rebaselined in FYs 2001-2005.
As mentioned previously, the NRC believes that it should proceed,
in future rulemakings, with a presumption in favor of rebaselining
because there is often a substantial change in the total NRC budget or
in the magnitude of the budget allocated to a specific class of
licensees. Changes occurring in FY 2006 and beyond that warrant a
rebaselining of fees include those in the areas of new reactor
licensing, homeland security (including the removal of certain homeland
security costs from the fee base beginning in FY 2007, per the Energy
Policy Act of 2005), and new regulatory authority for naturally
occurring and accelerator produced radioactive material. Accordingly,
the Commission has concluded that the percent change method should be
used infrequently, and therefore, is proceeding with a presumption in
favor of rebaselining each year beginning with this fee rule.
2. Recovering Generic Transportation Costs as Part of Other Existing
Annual Fees
The NRC is establishing that generic transportation costs unrelated
to DOE be recovered as part of existing annual fees for license fee
classes, rather than through a separate annual fee for part 71 Quality
Assurance (QA) program approval holders (as is the current practice).
Under this change, the annual fee for fee categories 10.B.1 and 10.B.2
under Sec. 171.16 will be eliminated. However, the NRC is not changing
or eliminating the annual fee under Sec. 171.16, fee category 18.A,
for DOE transportation activities, which will continue to be calculated
using the current methodology (described further under Section
III.B.3.h of this document). This change will enhance the equity of
NRC's fees, increase the consistency of 10 CFR parts 71 and 72 fee
recovery, and decrease the administrative burden associated with a
separate transportation annual fee.
All NRC licensees must perform some activities related to the
transportation of radioactive material as a necessary part of their
licensed activities. This transportation is authorized by their NRC
license (under 10 CFR parts 30, 40, 50, 70, etc.). [10 CFR 71.17
establishes a general license that authorizes NRC licensees to make
shipments using packages with an approved Certificate of Compliance
(CoC), without further approval.] For example, all licensees receive
licensed material at their site, and ship products and waste materials.
Because the NRC does not issue separate licenses under part 71 for
transportation activities, the NRC currently recovers the cost of all
``generic'' transportation activities (i.e., those activities that are
not licensee-specific, and therefore not recovered through part 170
fees) through annual fees for QA program approvals. QA program
approvals are required for entities holding NRC approved CoCs for
transportation packages and for licensees that ship large (Type B)
quantities of radioactive material or fissile material. NRC licensees
must also use an approved CoC to transport radioactive material.
The NRC currently charges annual fees for the two types of QA
program approvals it issues: (1) Use (approximately 80 programs), and
(2) use and fabrication (approximately 40 programs). However, the
resources for generic transportation activities-- which are recovered
through these two annual fees--support many other transportation-
related NRC approvals and services, including the issuance of CoCs,
route approvals, and evaluations of transportation devices and security
plans. (The NRC charges part 170 fees for these specific services, not
annual fees, for various reasons.)
One reason this approach raises fairness concerns is that a company
is required to have only one QA program approval regardless of the
number of CoCs it holds. This means companies pay the same annual fee
regardless of whether they own one or many CoCs. As industry
consolidation has increased over the past decade and the NRC has issued
fewer QA program approvals, this equity concern has increased.
The NRC believes generic transportation resources would be
recovered more equitably if these costs were included in the existing
annual fees for NRC licenses for 10 CFR parts 30, 40, 50, 70, etc. The
resources associated with generic transportation activities would be
distributed to the license fee classes based on the number of CoCs
benefitting (used by) that fee class, as a proxy for the generic
transportation resources expended for each fee class. (This is a method
similar to that used to calculate DOE's annual fee for transportation
activities under Sec. 171.16 fee category 18.A.) In this way, the
annual fee for a license would include the estimated share of
transportation resources needed to support that license, similar to the
recovery of other types of generic resources such as rulemakings and
risk assessments. Note that the amount of generic transportation
resources distributed to the fee classes does not include the cost of
activities associated with fee-exempt entities (e.g., nonprofit
educational institutions). Additionally, the distribution of these
resources to the fee classes is adjusted to account for the licensees
in each fee class that are fee exempt. [For example, if two CoCs
benefit the entire test and research reactor class, but only four of 31
test and research reactors are subject to annual fees, the number of
CoCs used to determine the proportion of generic transportation
resources allocated to test and research reactor annual fees equals
((4/31)*2), or 0.26 CoCs.]
Under this new approach, reactors pay approximately 38 percent of
these costs in FY 2006, materials users approximately 32 percent, fuel
facilities approximately 21 percent, spent fuel/reactor decommissioning
licensees approximately nine percent, and test and research reactors
approximately 0.3 percent.
This new approach will also increase the consistency of parts 71
and 72 fee recovery. Part 72 QA programs are approved as part of the
CoC approval process, and an annual fee is not assessed for either this
QA approval or the CoC. The generic costs associated with spent fuel
storage are recovered as part of the annual fee assessed to operating
power reactors, decommissioning power reactors, and independent spent
fuel storage installation licensees who do not hold a part 50 license.
Finally, an additional benefit of this approach is that it will
decrease administrative burden and costs for both NRC and licensees by
eliminating a required systems interface for NRC fee billing purposes,
as well as reduce the number of NRC bills and accounts receivable
transactions.
3. Revised Annual Fees
The annual fees in Sec. Sec. 171.15 and 171.16 are revised for FY
2006 to recover approximately 90 percent of the NRC's FY 2006 budget
authority, less the estimated amount to be recovered through part 170
fees and the amounts appropriated from the NWF and for WIR activities.
The total amount to be recovered through annual fees for FY 2006 is
$441.7 million, compared to $380.5 million for FY 2005.
Rebaselining fees in FY 2006 results in increased annual fees
compared to FY 2005 for all licensees except certain fuel facilities.
The increases in annual fees range from four percent for certain
[[Page 30735]]
sealed source safety devices to approximately 118 percent for uranium
recovery facilities. However, most of the annual fee increases are of
similar magnitude to the percentage increase in total required fee
recovery of approximately 15 percent. The annual fee for certain
medical licensees (fee category 7C) and industrial users of nuclear
material (fee category 3P), which are the two fee categories with the
largest number of licensees (with a combined total of over 3,200 of the
NRC's approximately 4,400 billable materials users licensees),
increased by approximately 18 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
As mentioned previously, the most significant factor affecting the
changes to the annual fee amounts is the increase in the NRC's fee
recoverable budget in FY 2006. The NRC's fee recoverable budget, as
mandated by law, is $83.4 million larger in FY 2006 as compared to FY
2005, an increase of over 15 percent. Much of this increase is for the
additional workload demand in areas such as new plant licensing and
security. Other factors include adjustments in the distribution of
budgeted costs to the different classes of licenses (based on the
specific activities NRC will perform in FY 2006) and the estimated part
170 collections for the various classes of licenses. The percentage of
the NRC's budget not subject to fee recovery remained unchanged at ten
percent from FY 2005 to FY 2006.
Note that the NRC's total estimated part 170 fee collections
increased by nineteen percent in FY 2006 (compared to FY 2005 actual
part 170 collections). This increase is mainly due to the increase in
the FY 2005 hourly rates as compared to the FY 2004 hourly rates. As
discussed in the FY 2005 rulemaking, the higher hourly rates
established in FY 2005 increased part 170 fee collections beginning in
FY 2006. (These rates took effect near the end of FY 2005, and the NRC
began collecting receipts from these higher rates as of the beginning
of FY 2006.) Because costs not recovered under part 170 are recovered
through part 171 annual fees, an increase in total part 170 fee
collections results in a reduction in total annual fees by the same
amount. Because of the higher hourly rates and resulting higher part
170 fee collections in FY 2006, the FY 2006 annual fees are lower than
they would have been had NRC not established higher hourly rates in FY
2005.
As mentioned previously, the NRC has made four updates to the FY
2006 fee calculations since the proposed rule, and these adjustments
affected the annual fee estimates in this rule. First, the NRC updated
the part 170 estimates based on the latest invoice data available. (The
part 170 estimates decreased somewhat for most fee classes, and
remained the same for two.) Second, the NRC has updated its allocation
of the ``Homeland Security Unallocated''planned activity, as described
in Section II.D.1. Third, the NRC has adjusted downward the amount of
generic transportation resources to be recovered from annual fees to
take into account the annual fee collections received for
transportation activities (fee categories 10.B.1 and 10.B.2 under Sec.
171.16) until the effective date of the FY 2006 final fee rule. (Note
that this is only a one-time adjustment because the 10.B.1 and 10.B.2
annual fees have been eliminated as of the effective date of this rule;
therefore, licensees should expect the value of these allocated
transportation resources to increase in future years.) Fourth, the
number of NRC materials users licensees has been updated to reflect the
transfer of approximately 150 licensees to the State of Minnesota. The
net impact of these updates is that annual fees for most licensees
either decreased slightly or remained the same since the proposed rule,
but some did increase by a small amount. Each of these changes and
their associated impacts on each fee class is discussed in more detail
in Section III.B.3.a-.
Table III shows the rebaselined annual fees for FY 2006 for a
representative list of categories of licenses. The FY 2005 fee is also
shown for comparative purposes.
Table III.--Rebaselined Annual Fees for FY 2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2005 FY 2006
Class/category of licenses annual fee annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating Power Reactors (including $3,155,000 $3,704,000
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor
Decommissioning annual fee)............
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor 159,000 173,000
Decommissioning........................
Test and Research Reactors (Non-power 59,500 80,100
Reactors)..............................
High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility..... 5,449,000 5,420,000
Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility...... 1,632,000 1,596,000
UF6 Conversion Facility................. 699,000 1,046,000
Conventional Mills...................... 30,200 65,900
Typical Materials Users:
Radiographers....................... 12,800 15,400
Well Loggers........................ 4,100 4,800
Gauge Users (Category 3P)........... 2,500 2,900
Broad Scope Medical................. 27,300 33,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The annual fees assessed to each class of licenses include a
surcharge to recover those NRC budgeted costs that are not directly or
solely attributable to the classes of licenses, but must be recovered
from licensees to comply with the requirements of OBRA-90, as amended.
Based on the FY 2006 EWDAA, which amended OBRA-90 (as amended) to
require that the NRC recover 90 percent of its budget in FY 2006, the
total surcharge costs for FY 2006 will be reduced by approximately
$69.3 million. The total FY 2006 budgeted costs for these activities
and the reduction in the total surcharge amount for fee recovery
purposes are shown in Table IV (individual values may not sum to totals
due to rounding).
[[Page 30736]]
Table IV.--Surcharge Costs
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2006
Category of costs budgeted costs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Activities not attributable to an existing NRC
licensee or class of licensee:
a. International activities......................... $13.8
b. Agreement State oversight........................ 8.0
c. Activities for unlicensed sites (includes 5.4
decommissioning costs associated with unlicensed
sites, formerly referred to as site decommissioning
management plan activities not recovered under part
170; also includes activities associated with
unregistered general licensees)....................
2. Activities not assessed part 170 licensing and
inspection fees or part 171 annual fees based on
existing law or Commission policy:
a. Fee exemption for nonprofit educational 11.9
institutions.......................................
b. Licensing and inspection activities associated 1.4
with other Federal agencies........................
c. Costs not recovered from small entities under 10 5.7
CFR 171.16(c)......................................
3. Activities supporting NRC operating licensees and
others:
a. Regulatory support to Agreement States \1\....... 20.2
b. Generic decommissioning/reclamation (except those 6.5
related to power reactors).........................
---------------
Total surcharge cost............................ 72.8
Less 10 percent of NRC's FY 2006 total budget (less NWF -69.3
and WIR)...............................................
---------------
Total Net Surcharge Costs to be Recovered....... 3.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As shown in Table IV, $3.5 million is the total net surcharge cost
allocated to the various classes of licenses for FY 2006 (i.e., that
portion of the total surcharge not covered by the NRC's 10 percent fee
relief). The NRC has continued to allocate these surcharge costs to
each class of licenses based on the percent of the budget for that fee
class compared to the NRC's total budget. The surcharge costs allocated
to each class is included in the annual fee assessed to each licensee.
The FY 2006 surcharge costs (and the percent of total surcharge costs)
allocated to each class of licenses, are shown in Table V (individual
amounts may not sum to totals due to rounding). Separately, the NRC has
continued to allocate the low-level waste (LLW) surcharge costs based
on the volume of LLW disposal of certain classes of licenses. For FY
2006, the LLW surcharge costs are $3.5 million.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ This estimate includes the costs of homeland security
activities associated with sources in Agreement States, even though
regulatory authority remains with the NRC for these activites.
However, fees are not assessed to sources in Agreement States for
these activities, therefore these costs are included in this
surcharge category. Additionally, this estimate includes some costs
associated with establishing a regulatory infrastructure for
naturally occurring and accelerator produced radioactive material
because this infrastructure will further the future regulation of
these sources by both NRC and Agreement States.
Table V.--Allocation of Surcharge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LLW surcharge Non-LLW surcharge Total
---------------------------------------------------- surcharge
Percent $M Percent $M $M
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating Power Reactors....................... 74 2.6 83.7 2.9 5.5
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decomm.............. ........... ........... 4.3 0.2 0.2
Test and Research Reactors..................... ........... ........... 0.1 0 0
Fuel Facilities................................ 8 0.3 6.5 0.2 0.5
Materials Users................................ 18 0.6 4.1 0.1 0.8
Transportation................................. ........... ........... 0.7 0 0
Rare Earth Facilities.......................... ........... ........... 0.1 0 0
Uranium Recovery............................... ........... ........... 0.4 0 0
----------------------------------------------------------------
Total Surcharge............................ 100 3.5 100.0 3.5 7.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The budgeted costs allocated to each class of licenses and the
calculations of the rebaselined fees are described in paragraphs a.
through h. below. The work papers which support this rule show in
detail the allocation of NRC's budgeted resources for each class of
licenses and how the fees are calculated. The reports included in these
work papers summarize the FY 2006 budgeted FTE and contract dollars
allocated to each fee class and surcharge category at the planned
activity and program level, and compare these allocations to those used
to develop final FY 2005 fees. The work papers are available
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at
Web site address http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. For a period
of 90 days after the effective date of this final rule, the work papers
may also be examined at the NRC Public Document Room located at One
White Flint North, Room O-1F22, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD
20852-2738.
Note that all budgeted resources and annual fee amounts presented
in this document reflect an increase in the full cost of an FTE. This
increase occurred due to the Government-wide pay raise and the more
accurate allocation of overhead to the FTEs supporting fee classes
versus surcharge categories, which increased the full cost of FTEs
supporting fee classes. As a percent of
[[Page 30737]]
total fee-based budgeted resources, the resources associated with NRC's
overhead actually declined from FY 2005 to FY 2006.
a. Fuel Facilities
The FY 2006 budgeted cost to be recovered in the annual fees
assessment to the fuel facility class of licenses is approximately
$24.8 million. This value is derived based on the full cost of budgeted
resources associated with all activities that support this fee class,
which is reduced by estimated part 170 collections and adjusted to
reflect the net allocated surcharge, allocated generic transportation
resources, and billing adjustments. The summary calculations used to
derive this value are presented in Table VI for FY 2006, with FY 2005
values shown for comparison purposes (individual values may not sum to
totals due to rounding):
Table VI.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Fuel Facilities
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fuel Facility Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $38.2 $39.6
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -14.3 -15.8
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 24.0 23.8
Plus allocated generic +N/A +0.4
transportation.....................
Plus allocated surcharge............ +0.4 +0.5
Billing adjustments (including -0.2 +0.0
carryover and budget rescission)...
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee 24.1 24.8
recovery.......................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The small increase in fuel facilities FY 2006 total budgeted
resources compared to FY 2005 is due mostly to an increase in the full
cost of an FTE (as explained previously). The total required annual fee
recovery also increases as a result of the allocation of generic
transportation resources.
The total required annual fee recovery amount is allocated to the
individual fuel facility licensees based on the effort/fee
determination matrix established in the FY 1999 final fee rule (64 FR
31448; June 10, 1999). In the matrix (which is included in the NRC work
papers that are publicly available), licensees are grouped into
categories according to their licensed activities (i.e., nuclear
material enrichment, processing operations, and material form) and
according to the level, scope, depth of coverage, and rigor of generic
regulatory programmatic effort applicable to each category from a
safety and safeguards perspective. This methodology can be applied to
determine fees for new licensees, current licensees, licensees in
unique license situations, and certificate holders.
This methodology is adaptable to changes in the number of licensees
or certificate holders, licensed or certified material and/or
activities, and total programmatic resources to be recovered through
annual fees. When a license or certificate is modified, it may result
in a change of category for a particular fuel facility licensee as a
result of the methodology used in the fuel facility effort/fee matrix.
Consequently, this change may also have an effect on the fees assessed
to other fuel facility licensees and certificate holders. For example,
if a fuel facility licensee amends its license/certificate in such a
way (e.g., decommissioning or license termination) that results in it
not being subject to part 171 costs applicable to the fee class, then
the budgeted costs for the safety and/or safeguards components will be
spread among the remaining fuel facility licensees/certificate holders.
The methodology is applied as follows. First, a fee category is
assigned based on the nuclear material and activity authorized by
license or certificate. Although a licensee/certificate holder may
elect not to fully use a license/certificate, the license/certificate
is still used as the source for determining authorized nuclear material
possession and use/activity. Next, the category and license/certificate
information are used to determine where the licensee/certificate holder
fits into the matrix. The matrix depicts the categorization of
licensees/certificate holders by authorized material types and use/
activities.
Once the structure of the matrix is established, the NRC's fuel
facility project managers and regulatory analysts determine the level
of effort associated with regulating each of these facilities. This is
done by assigning, for each fuel facility, separate effort factors for
the safety and safeguards activities associated with each type of
regulatory activity. The matrix includes ten types of regulatory
activities, including enrichment and scrap/waste related activities
(see the work papers for the complete list). Effort factors are
assigned as follows: zero (no regulatory effort), one (low regulatory
effort), five (moderate regulatory effort), and ten (high regulatory
effort). These effort factors are then totaled for each fee category,
so that each fee category has a total effort factor for safety
activities and a total effort factor for safeguards activities.
The budgeted resources for safety activities are then allocated to
each fee category based on its percent of the total regulatory effort
for safety activities. For example, if the total effort factor for
safety activities for all fuel facilities is 100, and the total effort
factor for safety activities for a given fee category is ten, that fee
category will be allocated ten percent of the total budgeted resources
for safety activities. Similarly, the budgeted resources for safeguards
activities are allocated to each fee category based on its percent of
the total regulatory effort for safeguards activities. The surcharge
that must be recovered from fuel facilities is allocated to each fee
category based on its percent 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 licensees in that fee category.
The effort factors for the various fuel facility fee categories are
summarized in Table VII. The value of the effort factors shown, as well
as the percent of the total effort factor for all fuel facilities,
reflects the total for each fee category (not per facility). Note this
table includes the addition of a new fee category, as discussed
immediately following the table.
[[Page 30738]]
Table VII.--Effort Factors for Fuel Facilities
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effort factors (percent of
Number of total)
Facility type (fee category) facilities -------------------------------
Safety Safeguards
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Enriched Uranium Fuel...................................... 2 101 (38.0) 96 (52.2)
Enrichment...................................................... 2 70 (26.3) 40 (21.7)
Low Enriched Uranium Fuel....................................... 3 66 (24.8) 21 (11.4)
UF6 Conversion.................................................. 1 12 (4.5) 7 (3.8)
Limited Operations.............................................. 1 8 (3.0) 3 (1.6)
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration......................... 1 3 (1.1) 15 (8.2)
Hot Cell........................................................ 1 6 (2.3) 2 (1.1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The NRC is dividing fee category 1.A.2.b under Sec. 170.31 into
two categories, and is using the existing fee methodology to establish
separate annual fees for these two categories. Currently, fee category
1.A.2.b captures all fuel facility licensees that do not fall into
other fee categories. There are currently two licensees in this fee
category; one is a gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration facility,
and one is a hot cell facility. The NRC provides significantly
different levels of regulatory support for these facilities. For
example, the gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration facility generates
and requires the safe management of significantly greater amounts of
sensitive information. For this reason, the NRC is dividing this fee
category into two categories to separately establish annual fees for
these two types of facilities based on the NRC's resources (i.e., level
of effort) specifically associated with regulating each type of
facility. This change better aligns the NRC's budgeted resources with
the fees assessed to these two facilities.
Applying the FY 2006 effort factors (as summarized in Table VII) to
the safety, safeguards, and surcharge components of the $24.8 million
total annual fee amount for the fuel facility class results in annual
fees for each licensee within the categories of this class summarized
in Table VIII. Note that the annual fees for the gas centrifuge
enrichment demonstration and UF6 conversion facilities are
higher than the FY 2005 annual fees because the safeguards effort
factors for these facilities have been raised. These revised factors
better reflect the effort levels associated with safeguards activities
for these facilities, including those associated with interim
compensatory measures and the handling of sensitive information.
Table VIII.--Annual Fees for Fuel Facilities
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2006
Facility type (fee category) annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Enriched Uranium Fuel.............................. $5,420,000
Uranium Enrichment...................................... 3,027,000
Low Enriched Uranium.................................... 1,596,000
UF6 Conversion.......................................... 1,046,000
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration................. 991,000
Limited Operations Facility............................. 605,000
Hot Cell................................................ 440,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note the fuel facility annual fees decreased slightly between the
FY 2006 proposed and final fee rules due to (1) the revised allocation
of the ``Homeland Security Unallocated'' planned activity, which
resulted in fewer budgeted resources allocated to this fee class
(discussed further in Section II.D.1), and (2) a reduction of allocated
resources for generic transportation activities (discussed further in
Section III.B.3.h).
As mentioned previously, the NRC is currently reviewing
applications to build and operate gas centrifuge uranium enrichment
facilities. If these facilities are licensed to operate, they will be
subject to an annual fee in accordance with the methodology described
previously. The NRC's current plans are to establish a separate fee
category for these facilities.
b. Uranium Recovery Facilities
The total FY 2006 budgeted cost to be recovered through annual fees
assessed to the uranium recovery class is approximately $1.1 million.
The derivation of this value is shown below, with FY 2005 values shown
for comparison purposes. (Individual values may not sum to totals due
to rounding.)
Table IX.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Uranium Recovery
Facilities
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uranium Recovery Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $2.01 $2.34
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -1.30 -1.29
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 0.71 1.05
Plus allocated generic +N/A +N/A
transportation.....................
Plus allocated surcharge............ +0.01 +0.01
Billing adjustments (including -0.01 +0.00
carryover and budget rescission)...
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee 0.70 1.06
recovery.......................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The increase in budgeted resources reflects the reallocation of
existing NRC FTE to uranium recovery licensing and inspection
activities from other activities (e.g., Agreement State oversight). The
part 170 estimate (as shown above) reflects an increase, over
historical actual part 170 collections, to fully account for these
additional activities. The FY 2006 part 170 estimate is not much
different than the FY 2005 part 170 estimate because the
[[Page 30739]]
FY 2005 estimate was higher than the actual part 170 collections.
Of the required annual fee collections, approximately $732,000
would be assessed to DOE. The remaining $329,000 would be recovered
through annual fees assessed to conventional mills, in-situ leach
solution mining facilities, and 11e.(2) mill tailings disposal
facilities (incidental to existing tailings sites).
Consistent with the change in methodology adopted in the FY 2002
final fee rule (67 FR 42612; June 24, 2002), the total annual fee
amount, less the amounts specifically budgeted for Title I activities,
is allocated equally between Title I and Title II licensees. This
results in an annual fee being assessed to DOE to recover the costs
specifically budgeted for NRC's Title I activities plus 50 percent of
the remaining annual fee amount, including the surcharge and generic/
other costs, for the uranium recovery class. The remaining 50 percent
of the surcharge and generic/other costs are assessed to the NRC Title
II program licensees that are subject to annual fees. The costs to be
recovered through annual fees assessed to the uranium recovery class
are shown in Table X.
Table X.--Costs Recovered Through Annual Fees; Uranium Recovery Fee
Class
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOE Annual Fee Amount [Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation
Control Act (UMTRCA) Title I and Title II general
licenses]:
UMTRCA Title I budgeted costs....................... $402,913
50 percent of generic/other uranium recovery 322,722
budgeted costs.....................................
50 percent of uranium recovery surcharge............ 6,536
---------------
Total Annual Fee Amount for DOE (rounded)....... 732,000
Annual Fee Amount for UMTRCA Title II Specific Licenses:
50 percent of generic/other uranium recovery 322,722
budgeted costs.....................................
50 percent of uranium recovery surcharge............ 6,536
---------------
Total Annual Fee Amount for Title II Specific 329,258
Licenses.......................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The matrix used to allocate the costs of various categories of
Title II specific licensees has been reviewed and continues to equally
weight, as in FY 2005, the effort levels for each category of uranium
recovery facilities, in accordance with the NRC's FY 2006 budgeted
activities. As such, each non-DOE uranium recovery licensee will be
assessed an equal share of the total annual fee amount for UMTRCA Title
II specific licenses. Additionally, the NRC is maintaining the existing
approach for establishing part 171 annual fees for Title II uranium
recovery licensees [established in the FY 1995 fee rule (60 FR 32218;
June 20, 1995)]. This approach is as follows:
(1) The methodology identifies three categories of licenses:
Conventional uranium mills (Class I facilities), uranium solution
mining facilities (Class II facilities), and mill tailings disposal
facilities (11e.(2) disposal facilities). Each category benefits from
the generic uranium recovery program efforts (e.g., rulemakings, staff
guidance documents);
(2) The matrix relates the category and the level of benefit by
program element and subelement;
(3) The two major program elements of the generic uranium recovery
program are activities related to facility operations and facility
closure;
(4) Each of the major program elements was further divided into
three subelements; and
(5) The three major subelements of generic activities associated
with uranium facility operations are regulatory efforts related to the
operation of mills, handling and disposal of waste, and prevention of
groundwater contamination. The three major subelements of generic
activities associated with uranium facility closure are regulatory
efforts related to decommissioning of facilities and land clean-up,
reclamation and closure of tailings impoundments, and groundwater
clean-up. Weighted values were assigned to each program element and
subelement considering health and safety implications and the
associated effort to regulate these activities. The applicability of
the generic program in each subelement to each uranium recovery
category was qualitatively estimated as either significant, some,
minor, or none.
The relative weighted factors per facility type for the various
categories of specifically licensed Title II uranium recovery licensees
are as follows:
Table XI.--Weighted Factors For Uranium Recovery Licenses
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level of benefit
-------------------------------
Facility type Number of Category Total weight
facilities weight -------------------------------
Value Percent
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class I (conventional mills).................... 1 800 800 20
Class II (solution mining)...................... 3 800 2,400 60
11e.(2) disposal................................ 0 0 0 0
11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings 1 800 800 20
sites..........................................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applying these factors to the approximately $329,000 in budgeted
costs to be recovered from Title II specific licensees results in the
following revised annual fees for FY 2006:
Table XII.--Annual Fees for Title II Specific Licenses
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2006
Facility type annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class I (conventional mills)............................ $65,900
Class II (solution mining).............................. 65,900
[[Page 30740]]
11e.(2) disposal........................................ N/A
11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites.. 65,900
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note because there are no longer any 11e.(2) disposal facilities
under the NRC's regulatory jurisdiction, the NRC has not allocated any
budgeted resources for these facilities, and therefore has not
established an annual fee for this fee category. If NRC issues a
license for this fee category in the future, then the Commission will
establish the appropriate annual fee.
The uranium recovery annual fees decreased slightly between the FY
2006 proposed and final fee rules due to the revised allocation of the
``Homeland Security Unallocated'' planned activity, which resulted in
fewer budgeted resources allocated to this fee class (discussed further
in Section II.D.1).
As discussed in Section III.B.4, ``Eliminating the Existing Fee
Payment Exception for Uranium Recovery Licensees,'' the NRC is
establishing that all Title II facilities be subject to the billing
provisions of Sec. 171.19(c), which state that annual fees that are
less than $100,000 are billed on the anniversary date of the license.
c. Operating Power Reactors
The approximately $367.2 million in budgeted costs to be recovered
through FY 2006 annual fees assessed to the power reactor class was
calculated as shown in Table XIII. (FY 2005 values shown for comparison
purposes; individual amounts may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table XIII.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Operating Power
Reactors
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating Power Reactors Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $440.7 $515.9
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -130.5 -155.2
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 310.2 360.7
Plus allocated transportation....... +N/A +0.8
Plus allocated surcharge............ +4.0 +5.5
Billing adjustments (including -2.6 +0.2
carryover, any budget rescission)..
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee 311.6 367.2
recovery.......................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The budgeted costs to be recovered through annual fees to power
reactors, including those for homeland security activities related to
power reactors, is divided equally among the 104 power reactors
licensed to operate. This results in a FY 2006 annual fee of $3,531,000
per reactor. Additionally, each power reactor licensed to operate will
be assessed the FY 2006 spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning
annual fee of $173,000. This results in a total FY 2006 annual fee of
$3,704,000 for each power reactor licensed to operate.
The annual fee for power reactors increases in FY 2006 compared to
FY 2005 due to an increase in budgeted resources for a number of
activities, including regulatory infrastructure for new reactor
licensing activities, preparations for future combined license
applications, homeland security-related mitigating strategies,
licensing tasks related to the aging of reactor systems and components,
and evaluating and resolving operational issues. As shown previously,
the NRC estimates an increase in part 170 collections of about 19
percent from operating power reactors; these collections offset the
required annual fee recovery amount by a total of over $155 million.
The power reactor annual fee increased by about one percent between
the FY 2006 proposed and final rules because of (1) a decrease in the
estimated part 170 collections from this fee class, based on the latest
four quarters of invoices available, and (2) the revised allocation of
the ``Homeland Security Unallocated'' planned activity, which resulted
in more budgeted resources allocated to this fee class (discussed
further in Section II.D.1).
d. Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning
For FY 2006, budgeted costs of approximately $21.2 million for
spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning are to be recovered through
annual fees assessed to part 50 power reactors, and to part 72
licensees who do not hold a part 50 license. Those reactor licensees
that have ceased operations and have no fuel onsite are not subject to
these annual fees. Table XIV below shows the calculation of this annual
fee amount. (FY 2005 values shown for comparison purposes; individual
values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table XIV.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for the Spent Fuel Storage/
Reactor Decommissioning Fee Class
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor--
Decommissioning Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $25.1 $26.6
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -5.7 -5.8
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 19.4 20.8
Plus allocated generic +N/A +0.2
transportation.....................
Plus allocated surcharge............ +0.1 +0.2
Billing adjustments (including -0.1 +0.0
carryover and budget rescission)...
-------------------------------
[[Page 30741]]
Total required annual fee 19.4 21.2
recovery.......................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The required annual fee recovery amount is divided equally among
122 licensees (and to one new licensee with a 60 prorated annual fee,
in accordance with Sec. 171.17(a)), resulting in a FY 2006 annual fee
of $173,000 per licensee. The value of total budgeted resources for
this fee class increased in FY 2006 compared to FY 2005 due to an
increase in the full cost of a budgeted FTE, the allocation of generic
transportation resources, and relatively small increases in contracts
allocated for activities such as licensing/certification and training.
The annual fee for this fee class increased slightly between the FY
2006 proposed and final fee rules because of a reduced estimate of part
170 fee collections, based on the latest four quarters of invoices.
e. Test and Research Reactors (Nonpower Reactors)
Approximately $320,000 in budgeted costs is to be recovered through
annual fees assessed to the test and research reactor class of licenses
for FY 2006. Table XV summarizes the annual fee calculation for test
and research reactors for FY 2006 (as compared to FY 2005). Individual
values may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Table XV.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Test and Research
Reactors
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations/test and
research reactors fee class FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $0.52 $0.88
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ -0.28 -0.57
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.................. 0.24 0.31
Plus allocated generic transportation... +N/A +0.01
Plus allocated surcharge................ +0.00 +0.01
Billing adjustments (including carryover -0.00 +0.00
and budget rescission).................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 0.24 0.32
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This required annual fee recovery amount is divided equally among
the four test and research reactors subject to annual fees, and results
in a FY 2006 annual fee of $80,100 for each licensee. This increase in
annual fees from FY 2005 to FY 2006 is due to a relatively large
increase in budgeted resources for licensing activities for test and
research reactors, which is part of an initiative to reduce a backlog
of reactor licensing actions. Although the NRC estimates that much of
this increase will result in an increase in estimated part 170
collections (which is factored into the part 170 estimates above), some
of these resources are projected to be associated with non-licensee
specific activities, and therefore will need to be recovered under part
171.
Note the annual fee for test and research reactors increased by
about five percent between the FY 2006 proposed and final fee rules.
This is due to a lower estimate of part 170 fee collections, based on
the latest four quarters of invoices.
f. Rare Earth Facilities
The FY 2006 budgeted costs of $95,900 for rare earth facilities to
be recovered through annual fees will be assessed to the one licensee
who has a specific license for receipt and processing of source
material, resulting in a FY 2006 annual fee of $95,900. Table XVI
summarizes the annual fee calculation for the rare earth fee class for
FY 2006 (as compared to FY 2005). (Individual values may not sum to
totals due to rounding.)
Table XVI.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Rare Earth Facilities
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rare Earth Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $0.875 $0.831
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -0.800 -0.740
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 0.075 0.091
Plus allocated generic +N/A +N/A
transportation.....................
Plus allocated surcharge............ +0.000 +0.005
Billing adjustments (including -0.000 +0.000
carryover and budget rescission)...
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 0.074 0.096
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 30742]]
The total allocated resources for this fee class decreased slightly
in FY 2006 compared to FY 2005, but the annual fee increases due to
lower estimated part 170 collections. Note the rare earth annual fee
decreased slightly between the FY 2006 proposed and final fee rules
because of the revised allocation of the `Homeland Security
Unallocated' planned activity, which resulted in fewer budgeted
resources allocated to this fee class (discussed further in Section
II.D.1).
g. Materials Users
Table XVII shows the calculation of the FY 2006 annual fee amount
for materials users licensees. (FY 2005 values shown for comparison
purposes; individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table XVII.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Materials Users
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations/materials users FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $27.5 $30.3
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -1.9 -2.0
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 25.6 28.2
Plus allocated generic +N/A +0.6
transportation.....................
Plus allocated surcharge............ +0.6 +0.8
Billing adjustments (including -0.1 +0.0
carryover and budget rescission)...
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee 26.0 29.6
recovery.......................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To equitably and fairly allocate the $29.6 million in FY 2006
budgeted costs to be recovered in annual fees assessed to the
approximately 4,400 billable diverse materials users licensees, the NRC
has continued to base the annual fees for each fee category within this
class on the 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 license, this approach
continues to provide a proxy for allocating the generic and other
regulatory costs to the diverse categories of licenses based on how
much it costs the NRC to regulate each category. The fee calculation
also continues to consider the inspection frequency (priority), which
is indicative of the safety risk and resulting regulatory costs
associated with the categories of licenses.
The annual fee for these categories of materials users licenses is
developed as follows:
Annual fee = Constant x [Application Fee + (Average Inspection Cost
divided by Inspection Priority)]+ Inspection Multiplier x (Average
Inspection Cost divided by Inspection Priority) + Unique Category
Costs.
The constant is the multiple necessary to recover approximately
$21.5 million in general costs (including allocated generic
transportation costs) and is 1.21 for FY 2006. The inspection
multiplier is the multiple necessary to recover approximately $7.2
million in inspection costs, and is 1.57 for FY 2006. The unique
category costs are any special costs that the NRC has budgeted for a
specific category of licenses. For FY 2006, approximately $111,000 in
budgeted costs for the implementation of revised 10 CFR part 35,
Medical Use of Byproduct Material (unique costs), has been allocated to
holders of NRC human use licenses.
The annual fee assessed to each licensee also includes a share of
the $143,000 in surcharge costs allocated to the materials users class
of licenses and, for certain categories of these licenses, a share of
the approximately $634,000 in LLW surcharge costs allocated to the
class. The annual fee for each fee category is shown in Sec.
171.16(d).
The annual fees for materials licensees increased in FY 2006 mainly
because of an increase in budgeted resources for activities relating to
information technology/tracking systems for these types of licensees
(including tracking that relates to homeland security purposes),
increases for inspection activities, and the allocation of generic
transportation resources. Increases in annual fees for materials users
licensees (other than master materials licenses, for which the annual
fee increased 49 percent) range from approximately four percent to
approximately 23 percent. These changes reflect the overall increase of
over 14 percent in budgeted resources to be recovered through annual
fees to this fee class; the actual percentage increase for different
fee categories varies mainly because of the difference in how
inspection versus other types of resources are distributed to the fee
categories. For example, the inspection resources to be recovered
through annual fees increased more than non-inspection resources from
FY 2005 to FY 2006. Those fee categories that receive a relatively
larger share of these inspection budgeted costs (due to their higher
average hours per inspection), have annual fees that increase somewhat
more than other fee categories, as compared to FY 2005. This is also a
key reason for the master materials license fee increase.
Between the FY 2006 proposed and final fee rules, annual fees
increased slightly for some materials users licensees, decreased
slightly for others, and remained the same for the majority. The
reasons for changes in the materials users fees are (1) A slight
reduction in the estimated part 170 collections for this fee class,
which increased the annual fee recovery amount; (2) a small decrease in
allocated resources from the `Homeland Security Unallocated' planned
activity (discussed in Section II.D.1); (3) a decrease in allocated
generic transportation resources (discussed in more detail in Section
III.B.3.h); and (4) the transfer of approximately 150 licensees to the
State of Minnesota (see Section III.B.3.5).
The impact of the transfer of licensees to the State of Minnesota
is that the budgeted resources for most licensing and inspection
activities for the materials users fee class are allocated to fewer
licensees. The FY 2006 final fee rule calculations reflect the
allocation of a larger percentage of materials users regulatory
infrastructure resources to the surcharge category of Agreement State
Regulatory Support because these infrastructure resources are allocated
to the surcharge based on the percentage of total materials users
licensees in Agreement States (and this percentage increased from 79 to
80 percent between the FY 2006 proposed and final fee rules). However,
budgeted resources for
[[Page 30743]]
activities such as licensing and inspections for NRC materials users
licensees are not allocated to the surcharge because they do not
benefit Agreement States or their licensees. Therefore, the transfer of
licensees to the State of Minnesota between the FY 2006 proposed and
final fee rules increased the amount of licensing and inspection
resources to be recovered per NRC licensee. The impact of this action
was somewhat offset by the changes listed in (2) and (3) in the
preceding paragraph; the result is that there are no significant
changes in materials users fees inbetween the FY 2006 proposed and
final fee rules.
h. Transportation
Table XVIII shows the calculation of the FY 2006 generic
transportation budgeted resources to be recovered through annual fees.
(FY 2005 values shown for comparison purposes.)
Table XVIII.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Transportation
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary Fee calculations/transportation FY 2005 final FY 2006 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fee Class:
Total budgeted resources............ $5.4 $6.3
Less estimated part 170 receipts.... -1.1 -1.2
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources (required 4.3 5.1
annual fee recovery)...............
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As discussed previously, the NRC is recovering generic
transportation costs unrelated to DOE as part of existing annual fees
for license fee classes. Under this approach, the annual fee for fee
categories 10.B.1 and 10.B.2 under Sec. 171.16 are eliminated, but the
NRC will continue to assess a separate annual fee under Sec. 171.16,
fee category 18.A, for DOE transportation activities.
The total FY 2006 budgeted resources for generic transportation
activities, including those to support DOE CoCs, is $5.1 million.
[Generic transportation resources associated with fee-exempt entities
are not included in this total; these costs are included in the
appropriate surcharge category (e.g., the surcharge category for
nonprofit educational institutions).] These resources are distributed
to DOE (to be included in its annual fee under fee category 18.A of
Sec. 171.16) and each license fee class based on the CoCs used by DOE
and each fee class, as a proxy for the generic resources expended for
each fee class. (Note that the number of CoCs used by fee class is
adjusted to take into account the percentage of licensees in that fee
class subject to annual fees, as explained previously.) As such, the
amount of the generic resources allocated 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.
For the FY 2006 final fee rule, the amount of generic
transportation resources allocated to the fee classes was reduced by
the amount of estimated annual fee collections for QA program approvals
in FY 2006 (approximately $1.9 million). This is because of the timing
of the issuance and effective date of the FY 2006 fee rule: The NRC is
receiving payments for annual fees for transportation activities (fee
categories 10.B.1 and 10.B.2 under Sec. 171.16 for QA program approval
activities) until the effective date of this fee rule. As such, these
collections have been applied to the NRC's fee recovery of FY 2006
generic transportation resources. This is only a one-time adjustment
because the 10.B.1 and 10.B.2 annual fees have been eliminated as of
the effective date of this rule. Therefore, licensees should expect the
value of these allocated transportation resources to increase in future
years. Note that the NRC has applied the $1.9 million in FY 2006 QA
program approval fee collections to the generic transportation
resources to be recovered from the fee classes, only, and not to DOE's
required annual fee recovery. This is because DOE is not subject to the
QA program approval requirements as are commercial licensees.
Accordingly, DOE did not pay these QA program approval fees nor benefit
from these approvals.
The distribution of these resources to the license fee classes and
DOE is as follows (individual values may not sum to totals due to
rounding):
Table XIX.--Distribution of Generic Transportation Resources, FY 2006
[Dollars in millions]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No. CoCs Allocated
benefitting Percentage of generic
fee class (or total CoCs transportation
DOE) (percent) resources
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
License fee class/DOE:
Total....................................................... 134 100 $5.13
DOE......................................................... 33 24.6 1.26
-----------------------------------------------
Remainder to be Recovered................................... .............. .............. 3.87
Less Estimated FY 2006 QA program approval fee collections.. .............. .............. 1.90
-----------------------------------------------
Net Amount to be Recovered from Fee Classes................. .............. .............. 1.97
Fee Classes:
Total (w/o DOE)............................................. 101 100 1.97
Operating Power Reactors.................................... 39 38.4 0.76
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning.................. 9 8.9 0.17
Test and Research Reactors.................................. 0.3 0.3 0.01
Fuel Facilities............................................. 21 20.7 0.41
[[Page 30744]]
Materials Users............................................. 32 31.7 0.63
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The NRC is continuing to assess DOE an annual fee based on the part
71 CoCs it holds. The NRC is not allocating these DOE-related resources
to other licensees' annual fees because these resources specifically
support DOE; hence the current fee recovery methodology for these
resources remains efficient and equitable. Note that DOE's annual fee
includes a portion of the surcharge, resulting in a total annual fee of
$1,285,000 for FY 2006. This fee increases from last year due to
budgeted increases for licensing/certification activities and an
increase in the full cost of an FTE. The fee decreased slightly between
the FY 2006 proposed and final fee rules because of a small decrease in
allocated resources from the `Homeland Security Unallocated' planned
activity (discussed in Section II.D.1).
4. Eliminating the Existing Fee Payment Exception for Uranium Recovery
Licensees
Under the payment provisions of Sec. 171.19, the NRC currently
bills licensees' part 171 fees annually if their annual fees are less
than $100,000, and quarterly if their annual fees are $100,000 or more.
However, the NRC bills Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees
quarterly in accordance with Sec. 171.19(b), regardless of the amount
of their annual fee. The NRC established this payment exception for
Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees in the FY 2001 final
rule (66 FR 32452; June 14, 2001) because the annual fees for these
licensees had been fluctuating just above or below $100,000. Since
then, uranium recovery license fees have been well below $100,000.
Because the basis of this billing exception is now not a factor, and
this exception is administratively burdensome to implement with the
current fee billing system, the NRC is eliminating the billing
exception for Class I and Class II uranium recovery licensees. These
licensees are now subject to the same payment provisions as all other
licensees, as described previously.
5. Agreement State Activities
By letter dated July 6, 2004, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota
requested that the NRC enter into an Agreement with the State as
authorized by Section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended.
The Commission approved this Agreement on January 26, 2006, and the
Agreement took effect March 31, 2006. This resulted in the transfer of
approximately 150 licenses to the State of Minnesota from the NRC.
Note that the continuing costs of Agreement State regulatory
support and oversight for the State of Minnesota, as for any other
Agreement State, are recovered through the surcharge (as reduced by the
ten percent of its budget that the NRC receives in appropriations each
year for these types of activities), consistent with existing policy.
As discussed in Sections II.C.1 and III.B.g, the budgeted resources for
the regulatory infrastructure to support these types of licensees are
prorated to the surcharge based on the percent of total licensees in
Agreement States. Accordingly, as a result of the State of Minnesota
becoming an Agreement State, the NRC has increased the percentage of
materials users regulatory infrastructure costs that are recovered
through the surcharge. Specifically, this percentage increased from 79
to 80 between the FY 2006 and proposed and final fee rules. However,
some resources associated with the materials users fee class are not
prorated to the surcharge (e.g., resources for licensing and inspection
activities), because these resources are for the purpose of supporting
NRC licensees, only. As such, the transfer of licensees to the State of
Minnesota resulted in an increase in annual fees for some materials
users licensees because the budgeted resources for activities such as
licensing and inspection are now spread to fewer NRC licensees.
6. Administrative Amendments
The NRC is clarifying the definition of ``overhead and general and
administrative costs'' under Sec. 171.5. This definition provides
examples of organizations that are included as ``indirect costs.'' The
NRC is clarifying that certain costs of some of these organizations are
not considered to be indirect; therefore, in these instances, these
costs are not included in overhead and general and administrative
costs. For example, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP)
is listed as an indirect office in this definition. There are instances
in which the ASLBP performs direct mission-related work, and the
budgeted resources for these activities are considered to be direct in
the fee calculations (consistent with the categorization of these
resources in the NRC's budget). The NRC believes this clarification
better reflects the most recent data on the types of budgeted resources
associated with these offices. Additionally, this definition is revised
to eliminate reference to an organization within the agency that no
longer exists.
In summary, the NRC is--
1. Proceeding with the presumption in favor of rebaselining
beginning with the FY 2006 fee rule;
2. Recovering generic transportation costs as part of other
existing annual fees;
3. Revising the annual fees to reflect the FY 2006 budget and other
changes;
4. Eliminating the existing fee payment exception for Class I and
Class II uranium recovery licensees;
5. Revising the number of NRC licensees given that the State of
Minnesota became an Agreement State; and,
6. Making an administrative change to clarify the definition of
``overhead and general and administrative costs.''
IV. Voluntary Consensus Standards
The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, Pub.
L. 104-113, requires that Federal agencies use technical standards that
are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies unless
using these standards is inconsistent with applicable law or is
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 approximately 90 percent of its
budget authority in FY 2006 as required by the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1990, as amended. This action does not constitute
the establishment of a
[[Page 30745]]
standard that contains generally applicable requirements.
V. Environmental Impact: Categorical Exclusion
The NRC has determined that this final rule is the type of action
described in categorical exclusion 10 CFR 51.22(c)(1). Therefore,
neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact
statement has been prepared for the final regulation. By its very
nature, this regulatory action does not affect the environment and,
therefore, no environmental justice issues are raised.
VI. Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
This final rule does not contain information collection
requirements and, therefore, is not subject to the requirements of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
VII. Regulatory Analysis
With respect to 10 CFR part 170, this final rule was developed
under Title V of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952
(IOAA) (31 U.S.C. 9701) and the Commission's fee guidelines. When
developing these guidelines the Commission took into account guidance
provided by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 4, 1974, in National Cable
Television Association, Inc. v. United States, 415 U.S. 36 (1974) and
Federal Power Commission v. New England Power Company, 415 U.S. 345
(1974). In these decisions, the Court held that the IOAA authorizes an
agency to charge fees for special benefits rendered to identifiable
persons measured by the ``value to the recipient'' of the agency
service. The meaning of the IOAA was further clarified on December 16,
1976, by four decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia: National Cable Television Association v. Federal
Communications Commission, 554 F.2d 1094 (D.C. Cir. 1976); National
Association of Broadcasters v. Federal Communications Commission, 554
F.2d 1118 (D.C. Cir. 1976); Electronic Industries Association v.
Federal Communications Commission, 554 F.2d 1109 (D.C. Cir. 1976); and
Capital Cities Communication, Inc. v. Federal Communications
Commission, 554 F.2d 1135 (D.C. Cir. 1976). The Commission's fee
guidelines were developed based on these legal decisions.
The Commission's fee guidelines were upheld on August 24, 1979, by
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Mississippi Power
and Light Co. v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 601 F.2d 223 (5th
Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1102 (1980). This court held that--
(1) The NRC had the authority to recover the full cost of providing
services to identifiable beneficiaries;
(2) The NRC could properly assess a fee for the costs of providing
routine inspections necessary to ensure a licensee's compliance with
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and with applicable regulations;
(3) The NRC could charge for costs incurred in conducting
environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy
Act;
(4) The NRC properly included the costs of uncontested hearings and
of administrative and technical support services in the fee schedule;
(5) The NRC could assess a fee for renewing a license to operate a
low-level radioactive waste burial site; and
(6) The NRC's fees were not arbitrary or capricious.
With respect to 10 CFR part 171, on November 5, 1990, the Congress
passed OBRA-90, which required that, for FYs 1991 through 1995,
approximately 100 percent of the NRC budget authority be recovered
through the assessment of fees. OBRA-90 was subsequently amended to
extend the 100 percent fee recovery requirement through FY 2000. As
mentioned previously, the FY 2001 EWDAA amended OBRA-90 to decrease the
NRC's fee recovery amount by 2 percent per year beginning in FY 2001,
until the fee recovery amount was 90 percent in FY 2005. The FY 2006
EWDAA extended this 90 percent fee recovery requirement through FY
2006. As a result, the NRC is required to recover approximately 90
percent of its FY 2006 budget authority, less the amounts appropriated
from the NWF and for WIR activities, through fees. To comply with this
statutory requirement and in accordance with Sec. 171.13, the NRC is
publishing the amount of the FY 2006 annual fees for reactor licensees,
fuel cycle licensees, materials licensees, and holders of Certificates
of Compliance, registrations of sealed source and devices, and
Government agencies. OBRA-90, consistent with the accompanying
Conference Committee Report, and the amendments to OBRA-90, provides
that--
(1) The annual fees be based on approximately 90 percent of the
Commission's FY 2006 budget of $741.5 million less the funds directly
appropriated from the NWF to cover the NRC's high-level waste program
and for WIR activities, and less the amount of funds collected from
part 170 fees;
(2) The annual fees shall, to the maximum extent practicable, have
a reasonable relationship to the cost of regulatory services provided
by the Commission; and
(3) The annual fees be assessed to those licensees the Commission,
in its discretion, determines can fairly, equitably, and practicably
contribute to their payment.
10 CFR part 171, which established annual fees for operating power
reactors effective October 20, 1986 (51 FR 33224; September 18, 1986),
was challenged and upheld in its entirety in Florida Power and Light
Company v. United States, 846 F.2d 765 (D.C. Cir. 1988), cert. denied,
490 U.S. 1045 (1989). Further, the NRC's FY 1991 annual fee rule
methodology was upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Allied
Signal v. NRC, 988 F.2d 146 (D.C. Cir. 1993).
VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The NRC is required by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1990, as amended, to recover approximately 90 percent of its FY 2006
budget authority through the assessment of user fees. This Act further
requires that the NRC establish a schedule of charges that fairly and
equitably allocates the aggregate amount of these charges among
licensees.
This final rule establishes the schedules of fees that are
necessary to implement the Congressional mandate for FY 2006. This rule
will result in increases in the annual fees charged to certain
licensees and holders of certificates, registrations, and approvals,
and decreases in annual fees for others. Licensees affected by the
annual fee increases and decreases include those that qualify as a
small entity under NRC's size standards in 10 CFR 2.810. The Regulatory
Flexibility Analysis, prepared in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 604, is
included as Appendix A to this final rule.
The Congressional Review Act of 1996 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. Therefore, in compliance with the law, Attachment 1 to the
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is the small entity compliance guide
for FY 2006.
IX. Backfit Analysis
The NRC has determined that the backfit rule, 10 CFR 50.109, does
not apply to this final rule and that a backfit analysis is not
required for this final rule. The backfit analysis is not required
because these amendments do not require the modification of, or
additions to systems, structures, components, or
[[Page 30746]]
the design of a facility, or the design approval or manufacturing
license for a facility, or the procedures or organization required to
design, construct, or operate a facility.
X. Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act
In accordance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement
Fairness Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-121, the NRC has determined that this
action is a major rule and has verified the determination with the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of
Management and Budget.
List of Subjects
10 CFR Part 170
Byproduct material, Import and export licenses, Intergovernmental
relations, Non-payment penalties, Nuclear materials, Nuclear power
plants and reactors, Source material, Special nuclear material.
10 CFR Part 171
Annual charges, Byproduct material, Holders of certificates,
registrations, approvals, Intergovernmental relations, Non-payment
penalties, Nuclear materials, Nuclear power plants and reactors, Source
material, Special nuclear material.
0
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 170 and 171.
PART 170--FEES FOR FACILITIES, MATERIALS, IMPORT AND EXPORT
LICENSES, AND OTHER REGULATORY SERVICES UNDER THE ATOMIC ENERGY ACT
OF 1954, AS AMENDED
0
1. The authority citation for part 170 is revised to read as follows:
Authority: Sec. 9701, Pub. L. 97-258, 96 Stat. 1051 (31 U.S.C.
9701); sec. 301, Pub. L. 92-314, 86 Stat. 227 (42 U.S.C. 2201w);
sec. 201, Pub. L. 93-438, 88 Stat. 1242, as amended (42 U.S.C.
5841); sec. 205a, Pub. L. 101-576, 104 Stat. 2842, as amended (31
U.S.C. 901, 902); sec. 1704, 112 Stat. 2750 (44 U.S.C. 3504 note);
sec. 623, Pub. L. 109-58, 119 Stat. 783 (42 U.S.C. 2201(w)).
0
2. In Sec. 170.3, the definition of special projects is revised to
read as follows:
Sec. 170.3 Definitions.
* * * * *
Special projects means those requests submitted to the Commission
for review for which fees are not otherwise specified in this chapter
and contested hearings on licensing actions directly related to U.S.
Government national security initiatives, as determined by the NRC.
Examples of special projects include, but are not limited to, contested
hearings on licensing actions directly related to Presidentially-
directed national security programs, topical report reviews, early site
reviews, waste solidification facilities, activities related to the
tracking and monitoring of shipment of classified matter, services
provided to certify licensee, vendor, or other private industry
personnel as instructors for part 55 reactor operators, reviews of
financial assurance submittals that do not require a license amendment,
reviews of responses to Confirmatory Action Letters, reviews of uranium
recovery licensees' land-use survey reports, and reviews of 10 CFR
50.71 final safety analysis reports. Special projects does not include
those contested hearings for which a fee exemption is granted in Sec.
170.11(a)(2), including those related to individual plant security
modifications.
* * * * *
0
3. In Sec. 170.11, paragraph (a)(5) is removed and reserved, and
paragraph (a)(4)(iii) and the introductory text of paragraph (a)(9),
paragraph (a)(9)(i) and the introductory text of paragraph (a)(9)(ii)
are revised as follows:
Sec. 170.11 Exemptions.
(a) * * *
(4) * * *
(iii) Distribution of byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material or products containing byproduct material,
source material or special nuclear material; or
* * * * *
(9) Federally-owned and State-owned research reactors used
primarily for educational training and academic research purposes. For
purposes of this exemption, the term research reactor means a nuclear
reactor that--
(i) Is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under section
104c. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2134(c)) at a thermal
power level of 10 megawatts or less; and
(ii) If so licensed at a thermal power level of more than 1
megawatt, does not contain--
* * * * *
0
4. Section 170.20 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 170.20 Average cost per professional staff-hour.
Fees for permits, licenses, amendments, renewals, special projects,
part 55 re-qualification and replacement examinations and tests, other
required reviews, approvals, and inspections under Sec. Sec. 170.21
and 170.31 will be calculated using the following applicable
professional staff-hour rates:
(a) Reactor Program (Sec. 170.21 Activities, excluding reactor
decommissioning and import/export licensing activities): $217 per hour
(b) Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Waste Program (Sec. 170.31
Activities, as well as the reactor decommissioning and import/export
licensing activities covered under Sec. 170.21): $214 per hour
0
5. In Sec. 170.21, Category K and footnote 1 in the table are revised
to read as follows:
Sec. 170.21 Schedule of fees for production and utilization
facilities, review of standard referenced design approvals, special
projects, inspections and import and export licenses.
* * * * *
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 and utilization facilities or the export
only of components for production and utilization
facilities issued under 10 CFR Part 110............
1. Application for import or export of
production and 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 $13,900
[[Page 30747]]
2. Application for export of reactor and other
components requiring Executive Branch review
only, for example, those actions under 10 CFR
110.41(a)(1)-(8)...............................
Application--new license, or amendment $8,100
3. Application for export of components
requiring the assistance of the Executive
Branch to obtain foreign government assurances.
Application--new license, or amendment $2,600
4. Application for export of facility components
and equipment (examples provided in 10 CFR part
110, Appendix A, Items (5) through (9)) not
requiring Commission or Executive Branch
review, or obtaining foreign government
assurances.....................................
Application--new license, or amendment $1,700
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 $320
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Fees will not be charged for orders related to civil penalties or
other civil sanctions issued by the Commission under Sec. 2.202 of
this chapter or for amendments resulting specifically from the
requirements of these orders. For orders unrelated to civil penalties
or other civil sanctions, fees will be charged for any resulting
licensee-specific activities not otherwise exempted from fees under
this chapter. Fees 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, 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. Fees for licenses
in this schedule that are initially issued for less than full power
are based on review through the issuance of a full power license
(generally full power is considered 100 percent of the facility's full
rated power). Thus, if a licensee received a low power license or a
temporary license for less than full power and subsequently receives
full power authority (by way of license amendment or otherwise), the
total costs for the license will be determined through that period
when authority is granted for full power operation. If a situation
arises in which the Commission determines that full operating power
for a particular facility should be less than 100 percent of full
rated power, the total costs for the license will be at that
determined lower operating power level and not at the 100 percent
capacity.
\2\ Full 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
at the time the service was provided. For those applications currently
on file for which review costs have reached an applicable fee ceiling
established by the June 20, 1984, and July 2, 1990, rules, but are
still pending completion of the review, the cost incurred after any
applicable ceiling was reached through January 29, 1989, will not be
billed to the applicant. Any professional staff-hours expended above
those ceilings on or after January 30, 1989, will be assessed at the
applicable rates established by Sec. 170.20, as appropriate, except
for topical reports whose costs exceed $50,000. Costs which exceed
$50,000 for any topical report, amendment, revision or supplement to a
topical report completed or under review from January 30, 1989,
through August 8, 1991, will not be billed to the applicant. Any
professional hours expended on or after August 9, 1991, will be
assessed at the applicable rate established in Sec. 170.20.
* * * * * * *
\4\ Imports only of major components for end-use at NRC-licensed
reactors are now authorized under NRC general import license.
0
6. Section 170.31 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 170.31 Schedule of fees for materials licenses and other
regulatory services, including inspections, and import and export
licenses.
Applicants for materials licenses, import and export licenses, and
other regulatory services, and holders of materials licenses or import
and export licenses shall pay fees for the following categories of
services. For those fee categories identified to be subject to full
cost fees, full cost fees will be assessed for all licensing and
inspection activities, unless otherwise indicated.
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:
A.(1) Licenses for possession and use of U-
235 or plutonium for fuel fabrication
activities.
(a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material Full Cost.
(High Enriched Uranium).
(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Full Cost.
Form Used for Fabrication of Power
Reactor Fuel.
(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. Full Cost.
(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment Full Cost.
demonstration facilities.
(c) Hot cell facilities................ Full Cost.
B. Licenses for receipt and storage of Full Cost.
spent fuel and reactor-related Greater
than Class C (GTCC) waste at an
independent spent fuel storage
installation (ISFSI).
C. Licenses for possession and use of
special nuclear material in sealed sources
contained in devices used in industrial
measuring systems, including x-ray
fluorescence analyzers: \4\
Application............................ $990.
D. All other special nuclear material
licenses, except licenses authorizing
special nuclear material in unsealed form
in combination that would constitute a
critical quantity, as defined in Sec.
150.11 of this chapter, for which the
licensee shall pay the same fees as those
for Category 1A: \4\
Application............................ $2,000.
[[Page 30748]]
E. Licenses or certificates for Full Cost.
construction and operation of a uranium
enrichment facility.
2. Source material:
A.(1) Licenses for possession and use of Full Cost.
source material for refining uranium mill
concentrates to uranium hexafluoride.
(2) Licenses for possession and use of
source material in recovery operations
such as milling, in-situ leaching, 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) Class I facilities \4\............. Full Cost.
(b) Class II facilities \4\............ Full Cost.
(c) Other facilities \4\............... Full Cost.
(3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of Full Cost.
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 2A(2) or Category 2A(4).
(4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of Full Cost.
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 2A(2).
B. Licenses which authorize the possession,
use, and/or installation of source
material for shielding:
Application............................ $240.
C. All other source material licenses:
Application............................ $8,400.
3. Byproduct material:
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:
Application............................ $10,000.
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:
Application............................ $3,800.
C. Licenses issued under Sec. Sec. 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 Sec. 170.11(a)(4). These
licenses are covered by fee Category 3D.
Application............................ $5,100.
D. Licenses and approvals issued under Sec.
Sec. 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter
authorizing distribution or redistribution
of radiopharmaceuticals, generators,
reagent kits, and/or sources or devices
not involving processing of byproduct
material. This category includes licenses
issued under Sec. Sec. 32.72 and/or
32.74 of this chapter to nonprofit
educational institutions whose processing
or manufacturing is exempt under Sec.
170.11(a)(4).
Application............................ $3,600.
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............................ $2,500.
F. Licenses for possession and use of less
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............................ $5,000.
G. Licenses for possession and use of
10,000 curies or more 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............................ $12,000.
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............................ $14,600.
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............................ $8,700.
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............................ $1,500.
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............................ $880.
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:
Application............................ $8,400.
[[Page 30749]]
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............................ $3,400.
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 3P; and
(2) Licenses that authorize waste
disposal services are subject to the
fees specified in fee Categories 4A,
4B, and 4C:
Application............................ $3,800.
O. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material issued under part 34 of
this chapter for industrial radiography
operations:
Application............................ $3,500.
P. All other specific byproduct material
licenses, except those in Categories 4A
through 9D:
Application............................ $1,200.
Q. Registration of a device(s) generally
licensed under part 31 of this chapter:
Registration........................... $730.
4. Waste disposal and processing:
A. Licenses specifically authorizing the Full Cost.
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:
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............................ $2,600.
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............................ $3,900.
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:
Application............................ $1,400.
B. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material for field flooding
tracer studies:
Licensing.............................. Full Cost.
6. Nuclear laundries:
A. Licenses for commercial collection and
laundry of items contaminated with
byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material:
Application............................ $17,100.
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 teletherapy devices:
Application............................ $9,400.
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:
Application............................ $6,700.
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:
Application............................ $2,300.
8. Civil defense:
A. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material for civil defense
activities:
Application............................ $490.
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............... $21,000.
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............... $21,000.
C. Safety evaluation of sealed sources
containing byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material,
except reactor fuel, for commercial
distribution:
Application--each source............... $2,400.
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............... $810.
10. Transportation of radioactive material:
A. Evaluation of casks, packages, and
shipping containers:
1. Spent Fuel, High-Level Waste, and Full Cost.
plutonium air packages.
[[Page 30750]]
2. Other Casks......................... Full Cost.
B. Quality assurance program approvals
issued under part 71 of this chapter.
1. Users and Fabricators
Application........................ $5,600.
Inspections........................ Full Cost.
2. Users
Application........................ $5,600.
Inspections........................ Full Cost.
C. Evaluation of security plans, route Full Cost.
approvals, route surveys, and
transportation security devices (including
immobilization devices).
11. Review of standardized spent fuel Full Cost.
facilities.
12. Special projects:
Including approvals, preapplication/ Full Cost.
licensing activities, and inspections.
13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Full Cost.
Compliance.
B. Inspections related to storage of spent Full Cost.
fuel under Sec. 72.210 of this chapter.
14. A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear Full Cost.
material licenses and other approvals
authorizing decommissioning, decontamination,
reclamation, or site restoration activities
under parts 30, 40, 70, 72, and 76 of this
chapter.
B. Site-specific decommissioning activities Full Cost.
associated with unlicensed sites,
regardless of whether or not the sites
have been previously licensed. Part 170
fees for these activities will not be
charged until July 25, 2006.
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 10 CFR
110.40(b).
Application--new license, or $13,900.
amendment.
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 NRC
to consult with domestic host state
authorities, Low-Level Radioactive
Waste Compact Commission, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, etc.
Application--new license, or $8,100.
amendment.
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 $2,600.
amendment.
D. Application for export or import of
nuclear material, including
radioactive waste, not requiring
Commission or Executive Branch review,
or obtaining foreign government
assurances. This category includes
applications for export or import of
radioactive waste where the NRC has
previously authorized the export or
import of the same form of waste to or
from the same or similar parties
located in the same country, requiring
only confirmation from the receiving
facility and licensing authorities
that the shipments may proceed
according to previously agreed
understandings and procedures.
Application--new license, or $1,700.
amendment.
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.................... $320.
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).5
Category 1 Exports:
F. Application for export of Category 1
materials involving an exceptional
circumstances review under 10 CFR
110.42(e)(4).
Application--new license, or amendment. $13,900.
G. Application for export of Category 1
materials requiring Executive Branch
review, Commission review, and government
to government consent.
Application--new license, or amendment. $8,100.
H. Application for export of Category 1
materials requiring Commission review and
government to government consent.
Application--new license, or amendment. $5,100.
I. Application for export of Category 1
material requiring government to
government consent.
Application--new license, or amendment. $4,300.
Category 2 Exports:
J. Application for export of Category 2
materials involving an exceptional
circumstances review under 10 CFR
110.42(e)(4).
Application--new license, or amendment. $13,900.
K. Applications for export of Category 2
materials requiring Executive Branch
review and Commission review.
Application--new license, or amendment. $8,100.
L. Application for the export of Category 2
materials.
Application--new license, or amendment. $3,900.
Category 1 Imports:
M. Application for the import of Category 1
material requiring Commission review.
Application--new license, or amendment. $4,100.
N. Application for the import of Category 1
material.
Application--new license, or amendment. $3,400.
[[Page 30751]]
Category 2 Imports:
O. Application for the import of Category 2
material.
Application--new license, or amendment. $3,000.
Category 1 Imports with Agent and Multiple
Licensees:
P. Application for the import of Category 1
material with agent and multiple licensees
requiring Commission review.
Application--new license, or amendment. $4,700.
Q . Application for the import of Category
1 material with agent and multiple
licensees.
Application--new license, or amendment. $3,900.
Minor Amendments (Category 1 and 2 Export and
Imports):
R. 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 authorities.
Minor amendment........................ $ 320.
16. Reciprocity:
Agreement State licensees who conduct
activities under the reciprocity
provisions of 10 CFR 150.20.
Application............................ $1,900.
17. Master materials licenses of broad scope
issued to Government agencies:
Application............................ $17,800.
18. Department of Energy
A. Certificates of Compliance. Evaluation Full Cost.
of casks, packages, and shipping
containers (including spent fuel, high-
level waste, and other casks, and
plutonium air packages).
B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Full Cost.
Act (UMTRCA) activities.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Types of fee--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; issuance 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:
(a) 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.
(1) 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.
(2) 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 1C only.
(b) Licensing fees. Fees for reviews of applications for new licenses
and for renewals and amendments to existing licenses, for pre-
application consultations and for reviews of other documents submitted
to NRC for review, and for project manager time for fee categories
subject to full cost fees (fee Categories 1A, 1B, 1E, 2A, 4A, 5B, 10A,
11, 12, 13A, and 14) are due upon notification by the Commission in
accordance with Sec. 170.12(b).
(c) 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 a 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.
(d) Inspection fees. Inspections resulting from investigations conducted
by the Office of Investigations and non-routine inspections that
result from third-party allegations are not subject to fees.
Inspection fees are due upon notification by the Commission in
accordance with Sec. 170.12(c).
(e) Generally licensed device registrations under 10 CFR 31.5.
Submittals of registration information must be accompanied by the
prescribed fee.
\2\ Fees will not be charged for orders related to civil penalties or
other civil sanctions issued by the Commission under 10 CFR 2.202 or
for amendments resulting specifically from the requirements of these
orders. For orders unrelated to civil penalties or other civil
sanctions, fees will be charged for any resulting licensee-specific
activities not otherwise exempted from fees under this chapter. Fees
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 Categories 9A through 9D.
\3\ Full cost fees will be determined based on the professional staff
time multiplied by the appropriate professional hourly rate
established in Sec. 170.20 in effect at the time the service is
provided, and the appropriate contractual support services expended.
For applications currently on file for which review costs have reached
an applicable fee ceiling established by the June 20, 1984, and July
2, 1990, rules, but are still pending completion of the review, the
cost incurred after any applicable ceiling was reached through January
29, 1989, will not be billed to the applicant. Any professional staff-
hours expended above those ceilings on or after January 30, 1989, will
be assessed at the applicable rates established by Sec. 170.20, as
appropriate, except for topical reports whose costs exceed $50,000.
Costs which exceed $50,000 for each topical report, amendment,
revision, or supplement to a topical report completed or under review
from January 30, 1989, through August 8, 1991, will not be billed to
the applicant. Any professional hours expended on or after August 9,
1991, will be assessed at the applicable rate established in Sec.
170.20.
\4\ Licensees paying fees under Categories 1A, 1B, and 1E are not
subject to fees under Categories 1C and 1D for sealed sources
authorized in the same license except for an application that deals
only with the sealed sources authorized by the license.
\5\ For a combined import and export license application for material
listed in Appendix P to part 110 of this chapter, only the higher of
the two applicable fee amounts must be paid.
[[Page 30752]]
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
0
7. The authority citation for part 171 is revised to read as follows:
Authority: Sec. 7601, Pub. L. 99-272, 100 Stat. 146, as amended
by sec. 5601, Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330, as amended by sec.
3201, Pub. L. 101-239, 103 Stat. 2132, as amended by sec. 6101, Pub.
L. 101-508, 104 Stat. 1388, as amended by sec. 2903a, Pub. L. 102-
486, 106 Stat. 3125 (42 U.S.C. 2213, 2214), and as amended by Title
IV, Pub. L. 109-103, 119 Stat. 2283 (42 U.S.C. 2214); sec. 301, Pub.
L. 92-314, 86 Stat. 227 (42 U.S.C. 2201w); sec. 201, Pub. L. 93-438,
88 Stat. 1242, as amended (42 U.S.C. 5841); sec. 1704, 112 Stat.
2750 (44 U.S.C. 3504 note).
0
8. In Sec. 171.5, the definition of Overhead and general and
administrative costs is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 171.5 Definitions.
* * * * *
Overhead and general and administrative costs means:
(1) The Government benefits for each employee such as leave and
holidays, retirement and disability benefits, health and life insurance
costs, and social security costs;
(2) Travel costs;
(3) Direct overhead [e.g., supervision and support staff that
directly support the NRC safety mission areas; administrative support
costs (e.g., rental of space, equipment, telecommunications and
supplies)]; and
(4) Indirect costs that would include, but not be limited to, NRC
central policy direction, legal and executive management services for
the Commission and special and independent reviews, investigations, and
enforcement and appraisal of NRC programs and operations. Some of the
organizations included, in whole or in part, are the Commissioners,
Secretary, Executive Director for Operations, General Counsel,
Congressional and Public Affairs (except for international safety and
safeguards programs), Inspector General, Investigations, Enforcement,
Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization and Civil Rights, the
Technical Training Center, Advisory Committees on Nuclear Waste and
Reactor Safeguards, and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel.
The Commission views these budgeted costs as support for all its
regulatory services provided to applicants, licensees, and certificate
holders, and these costs must be recovered under Public Law 101-508.
* * * * *
0
9. In Sec. 171.15 paragraphs (b), (c), (d), and (e) are revised to
read as follows:
Sec. 171.15 Annual fees: Reactor licenses and independent spent fuel
storage licenses.
* * * * *
(b)(1) The FY 2006 annual fee for each operating power reactor
which must be collected by September 30, 2006, is $3,704,000.
(2) The FY 2006 annual fee is 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
(surcharges). The activities comprising the FY 2006 spent storage/
reactor decommissioning base annual fee are shown in paragraphs
(c)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section. The activities comprising the FY
2006 surcharge are shown in paragraph (d)(1) of this section. The
activities comprising the FY 2006 base annual fee for operating power
reactors are as follows:
(i) Power reactor safety and safeguards regulation except licensing
and inspection activities recovered under part 170 of this chapter and
generic reactor decommissioning activities.
(ii) Research activities directly related to the regulation of
power reactors, except those activities specifically related to reactor
decommissioning.
(iii) Generic activities required largely for NRC to regulate power
reactors (e.g., updating part 50 of this chapter, or operating the
Incident Response Center). The base annual fee for operating power
reactors does not include generic activities specifically related to
reactor decommissioning.
(c)(1) The FY 2006 annual fee for each power reactor holding a 10
CFR part 50 license that is in a decommissioning or possession only
status and has spent fuel onsite and each independent spent fuel
storage 10 CFR part 72 licensee who does not hold a 10 CFR part 50
license is $173,000.
(2) The FY 2006 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), and an additional charge (surcharge). The activities
comprising the FY 2006 surcharge are shown in paragraph (d)(1) of this
section. The activities comprising the FY 2006 spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning rebaselined annual fee are:
(i) Generic and other research activities directly related to
reactor decommissioning and spent fuel storage; and
(ii) Other safety, environmental, and safeguards activities related
to reactor decommissioning and spent fuel storage, except costs for
licensing and inspection activities that are recovered under part 170
of this chapter.
(d)(1) The activities comprising the FY 2006 surcharge are as
follows:
(i) Low-level waste disposal generic activities;
(ii) Activities not attributable to an existing NRC licensee or
class of licenses (e.g., international cooperative safety program and
international safeguards activities, support for the Agreement State
program, decommissioning activities for unlicensed sites, and
activities for unregistered general licensees); and
(iii) Activities not currently subject to 10 CFR part 170 licensing
and inspection fees based on existing law or Commission policy (e.g.,
reviews and inspections conducted of nonprofit educational
institutions, licensing actions for Federal agencies, and costs that
would not be collected from small entities based on Commission policy
in accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601 et
seq.).
(2) The total FY 2006 surcharge allocated to the operating power
reactor class of licenses is $5.5 million, not including the amount
allocated to the spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning class. The
FY 2006 operating power reactor surcharge to be assessed to each
operating power reactor is approximately $53,000. This amount is
calculated by dividing the total operating power reactor surcharge
($5.5 million) by the number of operating power reactors (104).
(3) The FY 2006 surcharge allocated to the spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning class of licenses is $152,000. The FY 2006
spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning surcharge to be assessed to
each operating power reactor, each power reactor in decommissioning or
possession only status that has spent fuel onsite, and to each
independent spent fuel storage 10 CFR part 72 licensee who does not
hold a 10 CFR part 50 license is approximately $1,200. This amount is
calculated by dividing the total surcharge costs allocated to this
class by the total number of power reactor licenses, except those that
permanently ceased operations and have no fuel onsite, and 10 CFR part
72
[[Page 30753]]
licensees who do not hold a 10 CFR part 50 license.
(e) The FY 2006 annual fees for licensees authorized to operate a
test and research (non-power) reactor licensed under part 50 of this
chapter, unless the reactor is exempted from fees under Sec.
171.11(a), are as follows:
Research reactor--$80,100.
Test reactor--$80,100.
0
10. In Sec. 171.16, the section heading and paragraph (d) are revised
to read as follows:
Sec. 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.
* * * * *
(d) The FY 2006 annual fees are comprised of a base annual fee and
an additional charge (surcharge). The activities comprising the FY 2006
surcharge are shown for convenience in paragraph (e) of this section.
The FY 2006 annual fees for materials licensees and holders of
certificates, registrations or approvals subject to fees under this
section are shown in the following table:
Schedule of Materials Annual Fees and Fees for Government Agencies
Licensed by NRC
[See footnotes at end of table]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual fees\1\
Category of materials licenses \2\ \3\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 $5,420,000
Enriched Uranium)..............................
(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Form 1,596,000
Used for Fabrication of Power Reactor Fuel.....
(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.......... 605,000
(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration 991,000
facilities.....................................
(c) Hot cell facilities......................... 440,000
B. Licenses for receipt and storage of spent fuel \11\ N/A
and reactor-related Greater than Class C (GTCC)
waste at an independent spent fuel storage
installation (ISFSI)...............................
C. Licenses for possession and use of special 2,500
nuclear material in sealed sources contained in
devices used in industrial measuring systems,
including x-ray fluorescence analyzers.............
D. All other special nuclear material licenses, 6,900
except licenses authorizing special nuclear
material in unsealed form in combination that would
constitute a critical quantity, as defined in Sec.
150.11 of this chapter, for which the licensee
shall pay the same fees as those for Category
1.A.(2)............................................
E. Licenses or certificates for the operation of a 3,027,000
uranium enrichment facility........................
2. Source material:
A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of source 1,046,000
material for refining uranium mill concentrates to
uranium hexafluoride...............................
(2) Licenses for possession and use of source
material in recovery operations such as milling, in-
situ leaching, 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) Class I facilities \4\...................... 65,900
(b) Class II facilities \4\..................... 65,900
(c) Other facilities \4\........................ 95,900
(3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct \5\ N/A
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 2A(2) or Category
2A(4)..............................................
(4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct 65,900
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 2A(2).....
B. Licenses that authorize only the possession, use 890
and/or installation of source material for
shielding..........................................
C. All other source material licenses............... 14,800
3. Byproduct material:
A. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of 28,900
byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of
this chapter for processing or manufacturing of
items containing byproduct material for commercial
distribution.......................................
B. Other licenses for possession and use of 9,400
byproduct material issued under part 30 of this
chapter for processing or manufacturing of items
containing byproduct material for commercial
distribution.......................................
C. Licenses issued under Sec. Sec. 32.72 and/or 11,600
32.74 of this chapter authorizing the processing or
manufacturing and distribution or redistribution of
radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits and/
or sources and devices containing byproduct
material. This category also includes the
possession and use of source material for shielding
authorized under part 40 of this chapter when
included on the same license. This category does
not apply to licenses issued to nonprofit
educational institutions whose processing or
manufacturing is exempt under Sec. 171.11(a)(1).
These licenses are covered by fee under Category 3D
D. Licenses and approvals issued under Sec. Sec. 6,600
32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter authorizing
distribution or redistribution of
radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits and/
or sources or devices not involving processing of
byproduct material. This category includes licenses
issued under Sec. Sec. 32.72 and 32.74 of this
chapter to nonprofit educational institutions whose
processing or manufacturing is exempt under Sec.
171.11(a)(1). This category also includes the
possession and use of source material for shielding
authorized under part 40 of this chapter when
included on the same license.......................
E. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 4,800
material in sealed sources for irradiation of
materials in which the source is not removed from
its shield (self-shielded units)...................
F. Licenses for possession and use of less than 8,600
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...................
[[Page 30754]]
G. Licenses for possession and use of 10,000 curies 31,100
or more 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...................
H. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part 32 of 19,300
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............................................
I. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part 32 of 11,700
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....................................
J. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part 32 of 3,200
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...
K. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part 32 of 1,900
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.............
L. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use of 16,400
byproduct material issued under parts 30 and 33 of
this chapter for research and development that do
not authorize commercial distribution..............
M. Other licenses for possession and use of 6,900
byproduct material issued under part 30 of this
chapter for research and development that do not
authorize commercial distribution..................
N. Licenses that authorize services for other 7,300
licensees, except: (1) Licenses that authorize only
calibration and/or leak testing services are
subject to the fees specified in fee Category 3P;
and (2) Licenses that authorize waste disposal
services are subject to the fees specified in fee
categories 4A, 4B, and 4C..........................
O. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 15,400
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...
P. All other specific byproduct material licenses, 2,900
except those in Categories 4A through 9D...........
Q. Registration of devices generally licensed under \13\ N/A
part 31 of this chapter............................
4. Waste disposal and processing:
A. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of \5\ N/A
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..........................
B. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of 12,900
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............................
C. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt of 9,700
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.........................
5. Well logging:
A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 4,800
material, source material, and/or special nuclear
material for well logging, well surveys, and tracer
studies other than field flooding tracer studies...
B. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct \5\ N/A
material for field flooding tracer studies.........
6. Nuclear laundries:
A. Licenses for commercial collection and laundry of 27,400
items contaminated with byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material..............
7. Medical licenses:
A. Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 of 15,100
this chapter for human use of 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...................................
B. Licenses of broad scope issued to medical 33,000
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\.................
C. Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 6,000
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\...............................
8. Civil defense:
A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 1,900
material, source material, or special nuclear
material for civil defense activities..............
9. Device, product, or sealed source safety evaluation:
A. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of 25,700
devices or products containing byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear material,
except reactor fuel devices, for commercial
distribution.......................................
[[Page 30755]]
B. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of 25,700
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.............
C. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of 2,900
sealed sources containing byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear material,
except reactor fuel, for commercial distribution...
D. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation of 1,000
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.....................
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 \6\ N/A
air packages...................................
2. Other Casks.................................. \6\ N/A
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, \6\ N/A
route surveys, and transportation security devices
(including immobilization devices).................
11. Standardized spent fuel facilities.................. \6\ N/A
12. Special Projects.................................... \6\ N/A
13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Compliance \6\ N/A
B. General licenses for storage of spent fuel under \12\ N/A
10 CFR 72.210......................................
14. Decommissioning/Reclamation:
A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear material \7\ N/A
licenses and other approvals authorizing
decommissioning, decontamination, reclamation, or
site restoration activities under parts 30, 40, 70,
72, and 76 of this chapter.........................
B. Site-specific decommissioning activities \7\ N/A
associated with unlicensed sites, regardless of
whether or not the sites have been previously
licensed...........................................
15. Import and Export licenses.......................... 8 N/A
16. Reciprocity......................................... 8 N/A
17. Master materials licenses of broad scope issued to 373,000
Government agencies....................................
18. Department of Energy:
A. Certificates of Compliance....................... 10 1,285,000
B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act 732,000
(UMTRCA) activities................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Annual 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 fiscal year. However, 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, 2006, and permanently ceased licensed activities
entirely by September 30, 2006. Annual fees for licensees who filed
for termination of a license, downgrade of a license, or for a
possession only license during the fiscal year and for new licenses
issued during the fiscal year will be prorated in accordance with the
provisions of Sec. 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.
Licensees paying annual fees under Category 1A(1) are not subject to
the annual fees for Categories 1C and 1D for sealed sources authorized
in the license.
2 Payment 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 parts 30, 40, 70, 71, 72, or 76 of this chapter.
3 Each fiscal year, fees for these materials licenses will be calculated
and assessed in accordance with Sec. 171.13 and will be published in
the Federal Register for notice and comment.
4 A Class I license includes mill licenses issued for the extraction of
uranium from uranium ore. A Class II license includes solution mining
licenses (in-situ and heap leach) issued for the extraction of uranium
from uranium ores including research and development licenses. An
``other'' license includes licenses for extraction of metals, heavy
metals, and rare earths.
5 There 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.
6 Standardized 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.
9 Separate annual fees will not be assessed for pacemaker licenses
issued to medical institutions who also hold nuclear medicine licenses
under Categories 7B or 7C.
10 This includes Certificates of Compliance issued to DOE that are not
under the Nuclear Waste Fund.
11 See Sec. 171.15(c).
12 See Sec. 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.
* * * * *
0
11. In Sec. 171.19 paragraphs (b) and (d) are revised to read as
follows:
Sec. 171.19 Payment.
* * * * *
(b) Annual fees in the amount of $100,000 or more and described in
the Federal Register document issued under Sec. 171.13, must be paid
in quarterly installments of 25 percent as billed by the NRC. The
quarters begin on October 1, January 1, April 1, and July 1 of each
fiscal year. The NRC will adjust the fourth quarterly invoice to
recover the full amount of the revised annual fee. If the amounts
collected in the first three quarters exceed the
[[Page 30756]]
amount of the revised annual fee, the overpayment will be refunded.
Licensees whose annual fee for the previous fiscal year was less than
$100,000 (billed on the anniversary date of the license), and whose
revised annual fee for the current fiscal year is $100,000 or greater
(subject to quarterly billing), will be issued a bill upon publication
of the final rule for the full amount of the revised annual fee for the
current fiscal year, less any payments received for the current fiscal
year based on the anniversary date billing process.
* * * * *
(d) Annual fees of less than $100,000 must be paid as billed by the
NRC. Materials license annual fees that are less than $100,000 are
billed on the anniversary date of the license. The materials licensees
that are billed on the anniversary date of the license are those
covered by fee categories 1C, 1D, 2A(2) Other Facilities, 2A(3), 2A(4),
2B, 2C, 3A through 3P, and 4B through 9D.
* * * * *
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of May, 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jesse L. Funches,
Chief Financial Officer.
Note: This Appendix will not appear in the Code of Federal
Regulations.
Appendix A to this Final Rule
Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis for the Amendments to 10 CFR
part 170 (License Fees) and 10 CFR Part 171 (Annual Fees)
I. Background
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), as amended (5 U.S.C. 601
et seq.), requires that agencies consider the impact of their
rulemakings on small entities and, consistent with applicable
statutes, consider alternatives to minimize these impacts on the
businesses, organizations, and government jurisdictions to which
they apply.
The NRC has established standards for determining which NRC
licensees qualify as small entities (10 CFR 2.810). These size
standards were established based on the Small Business
Administration's most common receipts-based size standards and
include a size standard for business concerns that are manufacturing
entities. The NRC uses the size standards to reduce the impact of
annual fees on small entities by establishing a licensee's
eligibility to qualify for a maximum small entity fee. The small
entity fee categories in Sec. 171.16(c) of this final rule are
based on the NRC's size standards.
From FY 1991 through FY 2000, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act (OBRA-90) (Pub. L. 101-508), as amended, required that the NRC
recover approximately 100 percent of its budget authority, less
appropriations from the Nuclear Waste Fund, by assessing license and
annual fees. The FY 2001 Energy and Water Development Appropriations
Act (Pub. L. 106-377) amended OBRA-90 to decrease the NRC's fee
recovery amount by 2 percent per year beginning in FY 2001, until
the fee recovery amount was 90 percent in FY 2005. The FY 2006
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act (Pub. L. 109-103)
extended this 90 percent fee recovery requirement through FY 2006.
As a result, the NRC is required to recover approximately 90 percent
of its FY 2006 budget authority, less the amounts appropriated from
the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) and for Waste Incidental to
Reprocessing (WIR) activities, through fees. The total amount NRC is
required to recover in fees for FY 2006 is approximately $624.0
million.
OBRA-90 requires that the schedule of charges established by
rulemaking should fairly and equitably allocate the total amount to
be recovered from the NRC's licensees and be assessed under the
principle that licensees who require the greatest expenditure of
agency resources pay the greatest annual charges. Since FY 1991, the
NRC has complied with OBRA-90 by issuing a final rule that amends
its fee regulations. These final rules have established the
methodology used by NRC in identifying and determining the fees to
be assessed and collected in any given fiscal year.
The Commission is rebaselining its part 171 annual fees in FY
2006. Rebaselining fees results in increased annual fees for all
licensees, with the exception of certain fuel facilities.
The Congressional Review Act of 1996 is intended to reduce
regulatory burdens imposed by Federal agencies on small businesses,
nonprofit organizations, and governmental jurisdictions. This Act
also provides Congress with the opportunity to review agency rules
before they go into effect. Under this legislation, the NRC annual
fee rule is considered a ``major'' rule and must be reviewed by
Congress and the Comptroller General before the rule becomes
effective. The Congressional Review Act also requires that an agency
prepare a guide to assist small entities in complying with each rule
for which a final RFA is prepared. This RFA and the small entity
compliance guide (Attachment 1) have been prepared for the FY 2006
fee rule as required by law.
II. Impact on Small Entities
The fee rule results in substantial fees being charged to those
individuals, organizations, and companies that are licensed by the
NRC, including those licensed under the NRC materials program. The
comments received on previous proposed fee rules and the small
entity certifications received in response to previous final fee
rules indicate that NRC licensees qualifying as small entities under
the NRC's size standards are primarily materials licensees.
Therefore, this analysis will focus on the economic impact of the
annual fees on materials licensees. In FY 2005, about 26 percent of
these licensees (approximately 1,200 licensees) requested small
entity certification.
The commenters on previous fee rulemakings consistently
indicated that the following results would occur if the proposed
annual fees were not modified:
1. Large firms would gain an unfair competitive advantage over
small entities. Commenters noted that small and very small companies
(``Mom and Pop'' operations) would find it more difficult to absorb
the annual fee than a large corporation or a high-volume type of
operation. In competitive markets, such as soil testing, annual fees
would put small licensees at an extreme competitive disadvantage
with their much larger competitors because the proposed fees would
be the same for a two-person licensee as for a large firm with
thousands of employees.
2. Some firms would be forced to cancel their licenses. A
licensee with receipts of less than $500,000 per year stated that
the proposed rule would, in effect, force it to relinquish its soil
density gauge and license, thereby reducing its ability to do its
work effectively. Other licensees, especially well-loggers, noted
that the increased fees would force small businesses to get rid of
the materials license altogether. Commenters stated that the
proposed rule would result in about 10 percent of the well-logging
licensees terminating their licenses immediately and approximately
25 percent terminating their licenses before the next annual
assessment.
3. Some companies would go out of business.
4. Some companies would have budget problems. Many medical
licensees noted that, along with reduced reimbursements, the
proposed increase of the existing fees and the introduction of
additional fees would significantly affect their budgets. Others
noted that, in view of the cuts by Medicare and other third party
carriers, the fees would produce a hardship and some facilities
would experience a great deal of difficulty in meeting this
additional burden.
Over 3,000 license, approval, and registration terminations have
been requested since the NRC first established annual fees for
materials licenses. Although some of these terminations were
requested because the license was no longer needed or licenses or
registrations could be combined, indications are that other
termination requests were due to the economic impact of the fees.
To alleviate the significant impact of the annual fees on a
substantial number of small entities, the NRC considered the
following alternatives in accordance with the RFA in developing each
of its fee rules since FY 1991.
1. Base fees on some measure of the amount of radioactivity
possessed by the licensee (e.g., number of sources).
2. Base fees on the frequency of use of the licensed radioactive
material (e.g., volume of patients).
3. Base fees on the NRC size standards for small entities.
The NRC has reexamined its previous evaluations of these
alternatives and continues to believe that establishment of a
maximum fee for small entities is the most appropriate and effective
option for reducing the impact of its fees on small entities.
III. Maximum Fee
The RFA and its implementing guidance do not provide specific
guidelines on what
[[Page 30757]]
constitutes a significant economic impact on a small entity;
therefore, the NRC has no benchmark to assist it in determining the
amount or the percent of gross receipts that should be charged to a
small entity. In developing the maximum small entity annual fee in
FY 1991, the NRC examined its 10 CFR part 170 licensing and
inspection fees and Agreement State fees for those fee categories
which were expected to have a substantial number of small entities.
Six Agreement States (Washington, Texas, Illinois, Nebraska, New
York, and Utah), were used as benchmarks in the establishment of the
maximum small entity annual fee in FY 1991. Because small entities
in those Agreement States were paying the fees, the NRC concluded
that these fees did not have a significant impact on a substantial
number of small entities. Therefore, those fees were considered a
useful benchmark in establishing the NRC maximum small entity annual
fee.
The NRC maximum small entity fee was established as an annual
fee only. In addition to the annual fee, NRC small entity licensees
were required to pay amendment, renewal and inspection fees. In
setting the small entity annual fee, NRC ensured that the total
amount small entities paid annually would not exceed the maximum
paid in the six benchmark Agreement States.
Of the six benchmark states, the maximum Agreement State fee of
$3,800 in Washington was used as the ceiling for the total fees.
Thus the NRC's small entity fee was developed to ensure that the
total fees paid by NRC small entities would not exceed $3,800. Given
the NRC's FY 1991 fee structure for inspections, amendments, and
renewals, a small entity annual fee established at $1,800 allowed
the total fee (small entity annual fee plus yearly average for
inspections, amendments and renewal fees) for all categories to fall
under the $3,800 ceiling.
In FY 1992, the NRC introduced a second, lower tier to the small
entity fee in response to concerns that the $1,800 fee, when added
to the license and inspection fees, still imposed a significant
impact on small entities with relatively low gross annual receipts.
For purposes of the annual fee, each small entity size standard was
divided into an upper and lower tier. Small entity licensees in the
upper tier continued to pay an annual fee of $1,800 while those in
the lower tier paid an annual fee of $400.
Based on the changes that had occurred since FY 1991, the NRC
re-analyzed its maximum small entity annual fees in FY 2000, and
determined that the small entity fees should be increased by 25
percent to reflect the increase in the average fees paid by other
materials licensees since FY 1991, as well as changes in the fee
structure for materials licensees. The structure of the fees that
NRC charged to its materials licensees changed during the period
between 1991 and 1999. Costs for materials license inspections,
renewals, and amendments, which were previously recovered through
part 170 fees for services, are now included in the part 171 annual
fees assessed to materials licensees. As a result, the maximum small
entity annual fee increased from $1,800 to $2,300 in FY 2000. By
increasing the maximum annual fee for small entities from $1,800 to
$2,300, the annual fee for many small entities was reduced while at
the same time materials licensees, including small entities, would
pay for most of the costs attributable to them. The costs not
recovered from small entities are allocated to other materials
licensees and to power reactors.
While reducing the impact on many small entities, the NRC
determined that the maximum annual fee of $2,300 for small entities
may continue to have a significant impact on materials licensees
with annual gross receipts in the thousands of dollars range.
Therefore, the NRC continued to provide a lower-tier small entity
annual fee for small entities with relatively low gross annual
receipts, and for manufacturing concerns and educational
institutions not State or publicly supported, with less than 35
employees. The NRC also increased the lower tier small entity fee by
the same percentage increase to the maximum small entity annual fee.
This 25 percent increase resulted in the lower tier small entity fee
increasing from $400 to $500 in FY 2000.
The NRC stated in the RFA for the FY 2001 final fee rule that it
would re-examine the small entity fees every two years, in the same
years in which it conducts the biennial review of fees as required
by the Chief Financial Officer's Act. Accordingly, the NRC examined
the small entity fees again in FY 2003 (68 FR 36714; June 18, 2003),
and determined that a change was not warranted to the small entity
fees established in FY 2003.
The NRC again re-examined the small entity fees for FY 2005, and
did not believe that a change to the small entity fees was
warranted. Unlike the annual fees assessed to other licensees, the
small entity fees are not designed to recover the agency costs
associated with particular licensees. Instead, the reduced fees for
small entities are designed to provide some fee relief for
qualifying small entity licensees while at the same time recovering
from them some of the agency's costs for activities that benefit
them. The costs not recovered from small entities for activities
that benefit them must be recovered from other licensees. Given the
reduction in annual fees from FY 2000 to FY 2005, on average, for
those categories of materials licensees that contain a number of
small entities, the NRC has determined that the current small entity
fees of $500 and $2,300 continue to meet the objective of providing
relief to many small entities while recovering from them some of the
costs that benefit them.
Therefore, the NRC retained the $2,300 small entity annual fee
and the $500 lower tier small entity annual fee for FY 2005, and is
not changing these fees in FY 2006. The NRC plans to re-examine the
small entity fees again in FY 2007.
IV. Summary
The NRC has determined that the 10 CFR part 171 annual fees
significantly impact a substantial number of small entities. A
maximum fee for small entities strikes a balance between the
requirement to recover 90 percent of the NRC budget and the
requirement to consider means of reducing the impact of the fee on
small entities. Based on its regulatory flexibility analysis, the
NRC concludes that a maximum annual fee of $2,300 for small entities
and a lower-tier small entity annual fee of $500 for small
businesses and not-for-profit organizations with gross annual
receipts of less than $350,000, small governmental jurisdictions
with a population of less than 20,000, small manufacturing entities
that have less than 35 employees, and educational institutions that
are not State or publicly supported and have less than 35 employees
reduces the impact on small entities. At the same time, these
reduced annual fees are consistent with the objectives of OBRA-90.
Thus, the fees for small entities maintain a balance between the
objectives of OBRA-90 and the RFA. Therefore, the analysis and
conclusions previously established remain valid for FY 2006.
Attachment 1 to Appendix A--U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Small Entity Compliance Guide, Fiscal Year 2006
Contents
Introduction
NRC Definition of Small Entity
NRC Small Entity Fees
Instructions for Completing NRC Form 526
Introduction
The Congressional Review Act of 1996 (CRA) requires all Federal
agencies to prepare a written guide for each ``major'' final rule,
as defined by the Act. The NRC's fee rule, published annually to
comply with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA-90),
as amended, is considered a ``major'' rule under the CRA. Therefore,
in compliance with the law, this guide has been prepared to assist
NRC materials licensees in complying with the FY 2006 fee rule.
Licensees may use this guide to determine whether they qualify
as a small entity under NRC regulations and are eligible to pay
reduced FY 2006 annual fees assessed under 10 CFR part 171. The NRC
has established two tiers of annual fees for those materials
licensees who qualify as small entities under the NRC's size
standards.
Licensees who meet the NRC's size standards for a small entity
(listed in 10 CFR 2.810) must submit a completed NRC Form 526
``Certification of Small Entity Status for the Purposes of Annual
Fees Imposed Under 10 CFR Part 171'' to qualify for the reduced
annual fee. This form can be accessed on the NRC's Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov. The form can then be accessed by selecting
``License Fees'' and under ``Forms'' selecting NRC Form 526. For
licensees who cannot access the NRC's Web site, NRC Form 526 may be
obtained through the local point of contact listed in the NRC's
``Materials Annual Fee Billing Handbook,'' NUREG/BR-0238, which is
enclosed with each annual fee billing. Alternatively, the form may
be obtained by calling the fee staff at 301-415-7554, or by e-
mailing the fee staff at [email protected]. The completed form, the
appropriate small entity fee, and the payment copy of the invoice
should be mailed to the
[[Page 30758]]
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, License Fee Team, at the address
indicated on the invoice. Failure to file the NRC small entity
certification Form 526 in a timely manner may result in the denial
of any refund that might otherwise be due.
NRC Definition of Small Entity
For purposes of compliance with its regulations (10 CFR 2.810),
the NRC has defined a small entity as follows:
(1) Small business--a for-profit concern that provides a
service, or a concern that is not engaged in manufacturing, with
average gross receipts of $5 million or less over its last 3
completed fiscal years;
(2) Manufacturing industry--a manufacturing concern with an
average of 500 or fewer employees based on employment during each
pay period for the preceding 12 calendar months;
(3) Small organizations--a not-for-profit organization that is
independently owned and operated and has annual gross receipts of $5
million or less;
(4) Small governmental jurisdiction--a government of a city,
county, town, township, village, school district or special
district, with a population of less than 50,000;
(5) Small educational institution--an educational institution
supported by a qualifying small governmental jurisdiction, or one
that is not State or publicly supported and has 500 or fewer
employees.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ An educational institution referred to in the size standards
is an entity whose primary function is education, whose programs are
accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or
association, who is legally authorized to provide a program of
organized instruction or study, who provides an educational program
for which it awards academic degrees, and whose educational programs
are available to the public.
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To further assist licensees in determining if they qualify as a
small entity, the following guidelines are provided, which are based
on the Small Business Administration's regulations (13 CFR part
121).
(1) A small business concern is an independently owned and
operated entity which is not considered dominant in its field of
operations.
(2) The number of employees means the total number of employees
in the parent company, any subsidiaries and/or affiliates, including
both foreign and domestic locations (i.e., not solely the number of
employees working for the licensee or conducting NRC licensed
activities for the company).
(3) Gross annual receipts includes all revenue received or
accrued from any source, including receipts of the parent company,
any subsidiaries and/or affiliates, and account for both foreign and
domestic locations. Receipts include all revenues from sales of
products and services, interest, rent, fees, and commissions, from
whatever sources derived (i.e., not solely receipts from NRC
licensed activities).
(4) A licensee who is a subsidiary of a large entity does not
qualify as a small entity.
NRC Small Entity Fees
In 10 CFR 171.16(c), the NRC has established two tiers of fees
for licensees that qualify as a small entity under the NRC's size
standards. The fees are as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
annual fee per
licensed
category
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small business not engaged in manufacturing and small
not-for-profit organizations (Gross Annual Receipts):
$350,000 to $5 million.............................. $2,300
Less than $350,000.................................. 500
Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500
employees or less:
35 to 500 employees................................. 2,300
Less than 35 employees.............................. 500
Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly
supported educational institutions) (population):
20,000 to 50,000.................................... 2,300
Less than 20,000.................................... 500
Educational institutions that are not State or publicly
supported, and have 500 Employees or less:
35 to 500 employees................................. 2,300
Less than 35 employees.............................. 500
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instructions for Completing NRC Small Entity Form 526
(1) File a separate NRC Form 526 for each annual fee invoice
received.
(2) Complete all items on NRC Form 526, as follows:
a. Enter the license number and invoice number exactly as they
appear on the annual fee invoice.
b. Enter the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) or North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS) if known.
c. Enter the licensee's name and address as they appear on the
invoice. Name and/or address changes for billing purposes must be
annotated on the invoice. Correcting the name and/or address on NRC
Form 526, or on the invoice does not constitute a request to amend
the license. Any request to amend a license must be submitted to the
respective licensing staff in the NRC's regional or headquarters
offices.
d. Check the appropriate size standard for which the licensee
qualifies as a small entity. Check only one box. Note the following:
(i) A licensee who is a subsidiary of a large entity does not
qualify as a small entity.
(ii) The size standards apply to the licensee, including all
parent companies and affiliates--not the individual authorized users
listed in the license or the particular segment of the organization
that uses licensed material.
(iii) Gross annual receipts means all revenue in whatever form
received or accrued from whatever sources--not solely receipts from
licensed activities. There are limited exceptions as set forth at 13
CFR 121.104. These are: the term receipts excludes net capital gains
or losses; taxes collected for and remitted to a taxing authority
(if included in gross or total income), proceeds from the
transactions between a concern and its domestic or foreign
affiliates (if also excluded from gross or total income on a
consolidated return filed with the IRS); and amounts collected for
another entity by a travel agent, real estate agent, advertising
agent, or conference management service provider.
(iv) The owner of the entity, or an official empowered to act on
behalf of the entity, must sign and date the small entity
certification.
The NRC sends invoices to its licensees for the full annual fee,
even though some licensees qualify for reduced fees as small
entities. Licensees who qualify as small entities and file NRC Form
526, which certifies eligibility for small entity fees, may pay the
reduced fee, which is either $2,300 or $500 for a full year,
depending on the size of the entity, for each fee category shown on
the invoice. Licensees granted a license during the first 6 months
of the fiscal year, and licensees who file for termination or for a
``possession only'' license and permanently cease licensed
activities during the first 6 months of the fiscal year, pay only 50
percent of the annual fee for that year. Such invoices state that
the ``amount billed represents 50% proration.'' This means that the
amount due from a small entity is not the prorated amount shown on
the invoice, but rather one-half of the maximum annual fee shown on
NRC Form 526 for the size standard under which the licensee
qualifies, resulting in a fee of either $1,150 or $250 for each fee
category billed (instead of the full small entity annual fee of
$2,300 or $500).
Licensees must file a new small entity form (NRC Form 526) with
the NRC each fiscal
[[Page 30759]]
year to qualify for reduced fees in that year. Because a licensee's
``size,'' or the size standards, may change from year to year, the
invoice reflects the full fee and licensees must complete and return
form 526 for the fee to be reduced to the small entity fee amount.
LICENSEES WILL NOT RECEIVE A NEW INVOICE FOR THE REDUCED AMOUNT. The
completed NRC Form 526, the payment of the appropriate small entity
fee, and the ``Payment Copy'' of the invoice should be mailed to the
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, License Fee Team at the address
indicated on the invoice.
If you have questions regarding the NRC's annual fees, please
contact the license fee staff at 301-415-7554, e-mail the fee staff
at [email protected], or write to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Office of the Chief Financial
Officer.
False certification of small entity status could result in civil
sanctions being imposed by the NRC under the Program Fraud Civil
Remedies Act, 31 U.S.C. 3801 et seq. NRC's implementing regulations
are found at 10 CFR part 13.
[FR Doc. 06-4815 Filed 5-26-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P