[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 110 (Friday, June 6, 2008)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 32386-32414]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-12086]



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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 2008; Final Rule

  Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules 
and Regulations  

[[Page 32386]]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Parts 170 and 171

RIN: 3150-AI28
[NRC-2008-0080]


Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2008

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) 2008, less the amounts appropriated from the Nuclear 
Waste Fund (NWF), amounts appropriated for Waste Incidental to 
Reprocessing (WIR) activities, and amounts appropriated for generic 
homeland security activities. The required fee recovery amount for the 
FY 2008 budget is approximately $779.1 million. After accounting for 
carryover and billing adjustments, the total amount to be billed as 
fees is approximately $760.7 million.

DATES: Effective Date: August 5, 2008.

ADDRESSES: The comments received on the proposed rule and the NRC's 
work papers that support these final changes to 10 CFR parts 170 and 
171 are available from the following locations:
    Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
search for documents filed under Docket ID [NRC-2008-0080]. For further 
information about this site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher, 301-415-5905; 
e-mail [email protected].
    NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have 
copied for a fee publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR, Public 
File Area O-1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland.
    NRC's Agency Wide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS): 
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC after 
November 1, 1998, are available electronically at the NRC's electronic 
Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this 
page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS, which provides text and 
image files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to 
ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in 
ADAMS, contact the NRC PDR reference staff at 1-899-397-4209, or 301-
415-4737, or by e-mail to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Renu Suri, telephone 301-415-0161; 
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. Congressional Review Act

I. Background

    The NRC is required each year, under OBRA-90, as amended, (42 
U.S.C. 2214) to recover approximately 90 percent of its budget 
authority, less the amounts appropriated from the NWF, amounts 
appropriated for WIR, and amounts appropriated for generic homeland 
security activities (``non-fee items''), through fees to NRC licensees 
and applicants. The 10 percent exclusion from fee recovery in NRC's 
annual appropriation is to pay for the costs of agency activities that 
do not provide a direct benefit to NRC licensees, such as international 
assistance and Agreement State activities under section 274 of the 
Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. The NRC's required fee recovery 
amount for the FY 2008 budget is approximately $779.1 million, which is 
decreased by approximately $18.4 million to account for billing 
adjustments (i.e., carryover from prior year, expected unpaid invoices, 
payments for prior year invoices), resulting in a total of 
approximately $760.7 million to be billed as fees in FY 2008.
    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 
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.
    In accordance with OBRA-90, as amended, $29.4 million of the 
budgeted resources associated with generic homeland security activities 
are excluded from the NRC's fee base in FY 2008. This legislative 
provision was discussed in the NRC's FY 2006 proposed and final fee 
rules (71 FR 7349, February 10, 2006; 71 FR 30721, May 30, 2006). These 
funds cover generic activities that support an entire license fee class 
or classes of licensees such as rulemakings and guidance development. 
Under the authority of 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.
    The amount of the NRC's required fee collections is set by law, and 
is therefore outside the scope of this rulemaking. In FY 2008, the 
NRC's total fee recovery amount increased by $109.8 million from FY 
2007, mostly in response to increased workload for new reactor 
licensing activities. The FY 2008 budget was allocated to the fee 
classes that the budgeted activities support. As such, the annual fees 
for reactor licensees increased. The annual fees for most other 
licensees decreased due to reductions in budgeted resources allocated 
to the fee classes. Another factor affecting the amount of annual fees 
for each fee class is the estimated collection under part 170. The 
annual fee amounts in the FY 2008 final fee rule are lower than those 
in the proposed rule primarily due to the increase in part 170 revenue 
estimates for all fee classes.

II. Response to Comments

    The NRC published the FY 2008 proposed fee rule on February 13, 
2008 (73 FR 8507) to solicit public comment on its proposed revisions 
to 10 CFR parts 170 and 171. The NRC received seven comments by the 
close of the comment period (March 14, 2008). The comments have been 
grouped by issue and are addressed in a collective response.

A. Specific Part 170 Issue

1. Direct Hours Per FTE
    Comment. Some commenters requested a better explanation for the 
decrease in efficiency for the time, FY 2005 to FY 2008. NRC used 1,371 
direct hours per FTE for calculation of hourly rates in FY 2008 
compared with 1,446 direct hours per FTE in FY 2005.

[[Page 32387]]

    Response. The purpose of the FY 2008 fee rulemaking, as with prior 
year fee rulemakings, is to establish fees in a fair and transparent 
manner to recover the required portion of the NRC's budget. The 
estimate of the direct staff hours per FTE used for the calculation of 
the hourly rate was revised based on data retrieved from NRC's time and 
labor system data. This revised estimate reflects changes that are 
taking place with the NRC's workforce.
    In response to the comment on the lower estimated direct staff 
hours per FTE in FY 2008 as compared with FY 2005, the estimate is a 
reflection of the increase in retirements of more experienced NRC staff 
and the increase in hiring of new staff to fill these vacancies. In 
addition, the NRC is also recruiting new staff due to the projected 
increase in its workload, particularly as it relates to new reactors. 
In the near term, as new, less experienced staff continue to come on 
board, more hours are required for training and less staff are 
available for direct work. For the FY 2008 fee rule, NRC reviewed this 
estimate and updated it to 1,371 hours as compared with the lower 1,287 
direct hours per FTE used for the FY 2007 hourly rate calculation. NRC 
plans to continue to review this estimate in future years and to update 
it as appropriate.

B. Specific Part 171 Issues

1. Annual Fee Changes
    Comment. Two commenters supported the reduction in annual fees for 
uranium recovery licensees. One commenter suggested assessing higher 
fees to the uranium recovery licensees as a deterrent to increased 
uranium mining. One commenter noted that the annual fee for the 
registration of devices generally licensed is too high.
    Response. In response to comments on the changes in annual fee 
amounts, NRC is rebaselining its fees in FY 2008, as noted in the 
proposed fee rule. Under this method, the annual fee amounts are 
calculated based on budgeted resources allocated to the fee class and 
may fluctuate from one year to the next. Changes in fee amounts in a 
fee class reflect the allocation of resources for regulatory activities 
to the fee class. As appropriate, the NRC will continue to recover its 
cost of application and amendment reviews by billing the identifiable 
applicants using the hourly rate.
    The NRC fees are set after careful evaluation and allocation of the 
costs of its budgeted activities. Policy issues related to discouraging 
uranium mining are not within the scope of this rulemaking.
2. Agreement State Activities
    Comment. Some commenters requested more discussion of the fee 
impact to NRC licensees once additional states beyond the Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania become Agreement States.
    Response. In response to concerns regarding decreasing numbers of 
NRC licensees in light of more states becoming Agreement States, the 
NRC notes that the fee calculation methodology considers the percentage 
of licensees in Agreement States in establishing fees for the materials 
users fee class. As explained in the proposed 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 82 percent of materials users licensees are in Agreement 
States, 82 percent of these regulatory infrastructure costs are 
included in the surcharge). 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 to 90 percent beginning in FY 2005. To the 
extent that the 10 percent of the budget authority which is not fee 
recoverable is insufficient to cover all surcharge costs, these 
remaining surcharge costs are spread to all licensees based on their 
percentage of the budget. In FY 2008, the NRC's fee relief exceeds the 
total surcharge cost. This excess fee relief is used to reduce all 
licensees' annual fees, based on their percentage of the fee 
recoverable budget authority.

C. Other Issues

1. Information Provided by NRC in Support of Proposed Rule
    Comment. Some commenters requested more explanation for the 
operating reactors fee increases. The details requested include an 
explanation of increases in the budget for the new reactor work. The 
commenters also wanted more explanation for the reduction in non-fee 
items.
    Response. In response to the comments on the explanation of 
increases in the budget for the new reactor work from FY 2007 to FY 
2008 and decreases in non-fee items, the NRC reiterates 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 Congressionally approved budget resulting from this 
process contains the NRC resources that must be allocated and then 
recovered through assessment of fees.
    The purpose of the FY 2008 fee rulemaking, as with prior year fee 
rulemakings, is to establish fees in a fair and transparent manner to 
recover the required portion of the NRC's budget. As such, the purpose 
of this rulemaking is to describe and then solicit and evaluate 
comments on the allocation of these resources for fee calculation 
purposes. 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. Each fiscal year, the NRC's 
Performance Budget submitted to the Congress for review provides the 
objectives of the budget and how it supports the agency's Strategic 
Plan goals and strategies. To assist commenters provide meaningful 
comments, the NRC made available NUREG-1100, Volume 23, ``Performance 
Budget: Fiscal Year 2008'' (February 2007), which discusses the NRC's 
budget for FY 2008, 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 fee 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. The proposed fee rule work papers included a separate 
document for each fee class and surcharge category to show the budget 
allocations for FY 2008 and FY 2007 at the planned activity level, 
thereby making it easier to see the reasons for any fee changes between 
FY 2008 and FY 2007. For example, the proposed fee rule stated that the 
power reactor annual fee increased due to an increase in budgeted 
resources for new reactor licensing activities. The work papers which 
listed the total budgeted FTE and contract resources at the planned

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activity level showed that the budgeted resources for one of the new 
reactor licensing activities, Combined Licenses, increased by 
approximately 133 FTE and $36 million in FY 2008, as compared with FY 
2007.
    The information available in the rule, work papers, and the 
Performance Budget provided the public extensive information on the 
calculation of 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.
2. Changing NRC's Small Entity Size Standards
    Comment. One commenter requested that NRC consider revising fees 
for small businesses not engaged in manufacturing. The commenter 
suggested raising the lower gross receipts amount for the lower tier of 
the small entity fee or develop a sliding scale of the small entity 
fees.
    Response. To alleviate the significant impact of the annual fees on 
a substantial number of small entities, NRC established the maximum 
small entity fee in FY 1991. In FY 1992, the NRC introduced a second, 
lower tier to the small entity fee. The NRC re-examined its small 
entity fees for the FY 2007 fee rulemaking, and did not believe that a 
change to the small entity fees was warranted. The NRC plans to re-
examine the small entity fees again in FY 2009.
3. Need for Timely Budget Estimate
    Comment. Several commenters raised concerns about the timing of the 
issuance of the fee rule. To address this issue, these commenters 
suggested that the NRC publish an estimate of fees for the following 
year, coincident with issuance of the proposed fee rule each year.
    Response. The NRC acknowledges the concerns raised by these 
commenters, and has addressed similar comments in previous fee 
rulemakings. 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 appropriation. Because the NRC can not 
estimate in advance what its future Congressionally approved budgets 
will be (i.e., proposed budgets must be submitted to the OMB for 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, at the time the FY 2007 proposed fee 
rule was published last year, the NRC was operating under a continuing 
resolution that limited the FY 2007 funds to the NRC's FY 2006 funding 
level which was approximately $83 million lower than what the President 
eventually signed into law on February 15, 2007. Had the NRC proposed 
or established preliminary fees based on the NRC funding in FY 2006, 
the FY 2007 estimated fees would have been quite different from the 
fees ultimately assessed to licensees.
    Even if the NRC were able to estimate a future year budget, the 
annual fee amounts are 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. The 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 
in advance would likely lead to inaccurate future fee projections, 
which would be misleading to applicants and licensees.
    The NRC staff is available to meet with interested licensees to 
explain the process of the fee rulemaking and the fee computations. To 
arrange a meeting, please contact Renu Suri, telephone 301-415-0161; e-
mail [email protected]; Office of the Chief Financial Officer, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
4. Increase in the Fund Balance With Treasury
    Comment. Some commenters requested an explanation for the increase 
in the NRC's fund balance with the Treasury account in FY 2007 as 
compared with FY 2006.
    Response. The fund balance with the Treasury represents 
appropriated funds in a U.S. Treasury account that are available to pay 
NRC's current liabilities and to finance the agency's authorized 
purchase commitments. Note 2 to the annual financial 
statements, Fund Balance with Treasury, in the Performance and 
Accountability Report, FY 2007, NUREG-1542, Volume 13, describes the 
components of this NRC asset. The amount of the fund balance with the 
Treasury has no impact on the calculation of the fee amounts. The OBRA-
90, as amended, requires the NRC to recover 90 percent of its budget 
authority for the fiscal year through fees. Therefore, an explanation 
for the increase in the NRC's fund balance with the Treasury for a 
prior year is outside the scope of this rulemaking. The NUREG-1542, 
Volume 13, which has more details on this fund balance is available on 
the NRC public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html.

III. Final Action

    The NRC is amending its licensing, inspection, and annual fees to 
recover approximately 90 percent of its FY 2008 budget authority less 
the appropriations for non-fee items. The NRC's total budget authority 
for FY 2008 is $926.1 million. The non-fee items include approximately 
$29 million appropriated from the NWF, $2 million for WIR activities, 
and $29.4 million for generic homeland security activities. Based on 
the 90 percent fee-recovery requirement, the NRC must recover 
approximately $779.1 million in FY 2008 through part 170 licensing and 
inspection fees and part 171 annual fees. The amount required by law to 
be recovered through fees for FY 2008 is $109.8 million more than the 
amount estimated for recovery in FY 2007, an increase of approximately 
16.4 percent.
    The FY 2008 fee recovery amount of $779.1 million is further 
reduced for billing adjustments and carryover from the prior year. The 
FY 2008 billing adjustments of $5 million are primarily for FY 2008 
invoices that the NRC estimates will not be paid during the fiscal 
year, less payments received in FY 2008 for FY 2007 invoices. In FY 
2008, the carryover amount is approximately $13.3 million which 
includes additional collections in FY 2007 that were unanticipated when 
the final FY 2007 fee rule was published. This leaves approximately 
$760.7 million to be billed as fees in FY 2008 through part 170 
licensing and inspection fees and part 171 annual fees.
    Table 1 summarizes the budget and fee recovery amounts for FY 2008. 
(Individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)

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          Table 1.--Budget and Fee Recovery Amounts for FY 2008
                          [Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Budget Authority.....................................       $926.1
    Less non-fee items.....................................        -60.4
                                                            ------------
        Balance............................................       $865.7
    Fee Recovery Rate for FY 2008..........................      x 90.0%
                                                            ------------
Total Amount to be Recovered for FY 2008...................       $779.1
    Less Carryover from FY 2007............................        -13.3
    Less Part 171 Billing Adjustments
        Unpaid FY 2008 Invoices (estimated)................          2.7
        Less Payments Received in FY 2008 for Prior Year            -7.8
         Invoices (estimated)..............................
                                                            ------------
        Subtotal...........................................        -18.4
                                                            ============
Amount to be Recovered Through Parts 170 and 171 Fees......       $760.7
    Less Estimated Part 170 Fees...........................       -291.8
                                                            ------------
Part 171 Fee Collections Required..........................       $468.9
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Approximately 76 percent of the $13.3 million carryover amount was 
for unpredicted FY 2007 part 170 revenues for licensing and inspection 
services. At the time the FY 2007 final fee rule was published, NRC 
estimated the part 170 revenues based on billings for the prior four 
quarters. The rate of actual billings and revenues for the remainder of 
FY 2007 was higher than expected. Some of the factors contributing to 
the greater than estimated part 170 revenue collections were higher 
billings for review of design certifications and pre-application 
interactions related to new reactors, and materials licensing reviews 
billed to government agencies for the first time. In August 2007, NRC 
began billing government agencies in accordance with the Energy Policy 
Act of 2005 (see the discussion in the NRC's final fee rule for FY 
2006, 71 FR 30731; May 30, 2006). The remainder of the $13.3 million 
carryover amount resulted from higher annual fees collected in FY 2007. 
Some of the factors for the higher collections were timing of the 
effective date of the FY 2007 fee rule, and collections for prior 
years. The FY 2007 fee rule went into effect August 6, 2007 with 
reduced fee amounts for most of the materials licensees. A majority of 
these licensees paid their fees on their anniversary month during FY 
2007, based on the FY 2006 fee schedule (which had higher fees). This 
resulted in higher fee collections in FY 2007. NRC also collected 
greater than expected annual fees due to billings for prior years which 
were identified in FY 2007.
    For FY 2008, the $13.3 million carryover amount will offset the 
fees statutorily required to be collected and results in a reduction in 
the annual fee for all fee classes. In addition, part 170 revenue 
estimates have been adjusted to reflect the current rate of billings to 
licensees. The NRC has updated the part 170 estimates for this final 
rule based on the latest invoice data available. In total, the part 170 
estimates increased by approximately $8 million from the FY 2008 
proposed fee rule; approximately $5 million of this increase is for the 
power reactor fee class.
    The NRC estimates that in FY 2008 approximately $291.8 million will 
be recovered from part 170 fees. This represents an increase of 
approximately 37 percent as compared to the actual part 170 collections 
of $213.7 million for FY 2007. The NRC derived the FY 2008 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 2008 budget, as appropriate. The remaining 
$468.9 million will be recovered through the part 171 annual fees in FY 
2008, compared to $465.3 million for FY 2007, an increase of less than 
1 percent. Annual fees for most licensees decreased between the FY 2008 
proposed and final fee rules primarily due to higher part 170 fee 
collections.
    The FY 2008 final fee rule is a ``major rule'' as defined by the 
Congressional Review Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C 801-808. Therefore, the NRC's 
fee schedules for FY 2008 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, part 72 
licensees, major fuel cycle facilities, and other licensees with annual 
fees of $100,000 or more, upon publication of the FY 2008 final rule. 
For these licensees, payment is due on the effective date of the FY 
2008 final rule. Because these licensees are billed quarterly, the 
payment due is the amount of the total FY 2008 annual fee, less 
payments made in the first three quarters of the fiscal year.
    Materials licensees with annual fees of less than $100,000 are 
billed annually. Those materials licensees whose license anniversary 
date during FY 2008 falls before the effective date of the FY 2008 
final rule will be billed for the annual fee during the anniversary 
month of the license at the FY 2007 annual fee rate. Those materials 
licensees whose license anniversary date falls on or after the 
effective date of the FY 2008 final rule will be billed for the annual 
fee at the FY 2008 annual fee rate during the anniversary month of the 
license, and payment will be due on the date of the invoice.
    The NRC will not routinely mail the FY 2008 final fee rule or 
future final fee rules to applicants or licensees. 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 is available on the Internet at http://www.regulations.gov.
    The NRC is amending 10 CFR parts 170 and 171 as discussed in 
Sections III.A and III.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 a single hourly rate of $238 to recover the 
full cost of activities under part 170, and will use this rate to 
calculate ``flat'' application fees. The rule also makes minor 
administrative changes for

[[Page 32390]]

purposes of clarification and consistency.
    The NRC is making the following changes:
1. Hourly Rate
    The NRC's hourly rate is used in assessing full cost fees for 
specific services provided, as well as for flat fees for certain 
application reviews. The NRC is lowering the FY 2008 hourly rate to 
$238 from the FY 2007 rate of $258. This rate is applicable to all 
activities for which fees are assessed under Sec. Sec.  170.21 and 
170.31. The FY 2008 hourly rate is lower than the hourly rate of $258 
in the FY 2007 final fee rule primarily due to the revised higher 
estimate of direct hours per FTE used in the hourly calculation. The 
hourly rate calculation is described in further detail in the following 
paragraphs.
    The NRC's single hourly rate is calculated by dividing the 
recoverable budgeted resources (excluding direct contract activities) 
by mission direct FTE hours. The numerator, recoverable budget 
resources, is the sum of (1) mission direct program salaries and 
benefits; (2) mission indirect salaries and benefits and contract 
activity; and (3) agency management and support and Inspector General. 
The only budgeted resources excluded from the hourly rate are those for 
mission direct contract activities. The denominator, mission direct FTE 
hours, is derived by multiplying budgeted mission direct FTE by the 
annual direct hours per FTE. Although the numerator (i.e., net 
recoverable budget excluding contract activities) increased by 11 
percent as compared with FY 2007, it is lower than the rate of increase 
in the denominator (i.e., mission direct FTE hours) which increased by 
21 percent. This resulted in a lower hourly rate for FY 2008 as 
compared with FY 2007. The increase in the mission direct FTE hours in 
FY 2008 compared with FY 2007 is due to the increase in direct FTEs 
(2,079 FTE vs. 1,835 FTE) and revised higher estimate of direct hours 
per FTE (1,371 hours vs. 1,287 hours).
    The NRC has reviewed data from its time and labor system to 
determine if the direct hours worked annually per direct FTE estimate 
requires updating for the FY 2008 fee rule. Based on this review of the 
most recent data available, the NRC determined that 1,371 hours is the 
best estimate of direct hours worked annually per direct FTE. This 
estimate excludes all non-mission direct hours, such as training, 
general administration, and leave. Because the NRC's hourly rates are 
calculated by dividing the net recoverable budget by the mission direct 
FTE hours (see descriptions above), the higher the number of direct 
hours per FTE used in the calculation, the lower the hourly rates.
    The NRC is updating its hourly rate calculation to reflect its 
latest estimate of direct hours per FTE to more accurately reflect the 
NRC's cost of providing part 170 services, which would allow the NRC 
recover the cost of these services through part 170 fees. The NRC 
believes that this is consistent with guidance provided in the Office 
of Management and Budget Circular A-25 on recovering the full cost of 
services provided to identifiable recipients. The lower hourly rate 
caused a decrease in both the full cost fees for licensing and 
inspection activities, and the materials flat fees for license 
applications.
    Table II shows the results of the hourly rate calculation 
methodology. (Individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)

               Table II.--FY 2008 Hourly Rate Calculation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mission Direct Program Salaries & Benefits...............       $292.6M
Mission Indirect Salaries & Benefits, and Contract               120.7M
 Activity................................................
Agency Management and Support, and IG....................        266.2M
                                                          --------------
    Subtotal.............................................       $679.5M
Less Offsetting Receipts.................................         -0.0M
                                                          --------------
    Net Recoverable Budget Included in Hourly Rate.......       $679.5M
Mission Direct FTEs......................................      2,079
Professional Hourly Rate (Net Recoverable Budget Included       $238
 in Hourly Rate divided by Mission Direct FTE times 1,371
 Annual Direct Hours Per FTE)............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As shown in Table II, dividing the $679.5 million budgeted amount 
(rounded) included in the hourly rate by total mission direct hours 
(2,079 FTE times 1,371 hours) results in an hourly rate of $238. The 
hourly rate is rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
2. ``Flat'' Application Fee Changes
    As noted above, the NRC is adjusting the current flat application 
fees in Sec. Sec.  170.21 and 170.31 to reflect the revised hourly rate 
of $238. These flat fees are calculated by multiplying the average 
professional staff hours needed to process the licensing actions by the 
professional hourly rate for FY 2008. 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. This review 
was last performed as part of the FY 2007 fee rulemaking. The lower 
hourly rate of $238 is the main reason for the reduction in the 
application fees.
    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.S., 4.B. through 9.D., 10.B., 15.A. through 15.R., 
16, and 17 of Sec.  170.31. Applications filed on or after the 
effective date of the FY 2008 final fee rule will be subject to the 
revised fees in the final rule.
3. Administrative Amendments
    The NRC is adding program codes next to the materials users fee 
categories in Sec.  170.31. At the time NRC receives a materials users 
license application, a five-digit program code number is assigned by 
the agency to each license to designate the major activity or principal 
use authorized in the license. More than one code may apply to a given 
license. The fee amount for the license under 10 CFR parts 170 and 171 
is determined by the fee category, which is also based on the 
authorized usage contained on the license. To reduce the risk of 
misinterpretation of material uses authorized in the license while 
establishing a fee category, the NRC is implementing a process that 
links a

[[Page 32391]]

program code directly to a fee category. Once a program code is 
assigned to the license, it will assist the licensee to correctly 
identify the fee amount(s) by looking up the program code(s) in Sec.  
170.31.
    In summary, the NRC is making the following changes to 10 CFR part 
170:
    1. Establish revised professional hourly rate to use in assessing 
fees for specific services;
    2. Revise the license application fees to reflect the FY 2008 
hourly rate; and
    3. Make certain administrative changes for purposes of 
clarification.

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 to part 171: Using its fee 
relief to reduce all licensees' annual fees; changing the number of NRC 
licensees for some fee categories; establishing rebaselined annual fees 
based on the NRC's FY 2008 budget authority; and making some minor 
administrative amendments. The final amendments are described as 
follows:
1. Application of ``Fee Relief''
    The NRC is using its fee relief to reduce all licensees' annual 
fees, based on their percent of the budget.
    The NRC applies the 10 percent of its budget that is excluded from 
fee recovery under OBRA-90, as amended (fee relief), to offset the cost 
of activities which do not directly benefit current NRC licensees. The 
cost of these ``surcharge'' activities are totaled, and then reduced by 
the amount of the NRC's fee relief. Historically, any remaining 
surcharge cost was allocated to all licensees' annual fees, based on 
their percent of the budget (i.e., over 80 percent was allocated to 
power reactors each year).
    In FY 2008, the NRC's fee relief exceeds the total surcharge cost 
by approximately $8.9 million. In FY 2007, this fee relief exceeded the 
total surcharge cost by approximately $9.8 million. Although the fee 
relief in FY 2008 is approximately $12.2 million higher compared with 
FY 2007, the amount of fee relief allocated to licensees decreases 
primarily due to higher FY 2008 surcharge cost, which includes funding 
of $15 million for scholarships and fellowships. The scholarships and 
fellowships funding, to be administered by the NRC, is to enable 
students to pursue education in fields of study that constitute 
critical skills areas needed to sustain NRC's regulatory mission and 
benefit the nuclear sector. This $15 million funding for scholarships 
and fellowships does not directly benefit the existing NRC licensees. 
Therefore, the NRC has classified it as a surcharge activity to be 
offset by the fee relief.
    The excess fee relief for the FY 2008 final rule increased by 
approximately $1.4 million compared with the proposed primarily due to 
a change in the generic decommissioning/reclamation surcharge costs. 
The amount in this surcharge category decreased from the proposed rule 
due to a smaller budget resource allocation for the generic 
decommissioning activities related to uranium recovery sites and a 
higher part 170 revenue estimate for all generic decommissioning/
reclamation activities.
    As in FY 2007, the NRC is using the $8.9 million excess fee relief 
to reduce all licensees' annual fees, based on their percent of the fee 
recoverable budget authority. This is consistent with the existing fee 
methodology, in that the benefits of the NRC's fee relief are allocated 
to licensees in the same manner as cost was allocated when the NRC did 
not receive enough fee relief to pay for surcharge activities. In FY 
2008, the power reactors class of licensees will receive approximately 
90 percent of the fee relief based on their share of the NRC fee 
recoverable budget authority.
    The total budgeted resources for the NRC's surcharge activities in 
FY 2008 are $77.7 million. The NRC's total fee relief in FY 2008 is 
$86.6 million, leaving $8.9 million in fee relief to be used to reduce 
all licensees' annual fees. These values are shown in Table III. 
(Individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)

                       Table III.--Surcharge Costs
                          [Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               FY 2008
                     Category of costs                         budgeted
                                                                costs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Activities not attributable to an existing NRC licensee
 or class of licensee:
    a. International activities............................        $12.9
    b. Agreement State oversight...........................          8.8
    c. Scholarships and Fellowships........................         15.0
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 institutions         10.9
    b. Costs not recovered from small entities under 10 CFR          3.8
     171.16(c).............................................
3. Activities supporting NRC operating licensees and
 others:
    a. Regulatory support to Agreement States..............          9.9
    b. Generic decommissioning/reclamation (not related to          13.5
     the power reactor and spent fuel storage fee classes).
    c. In-situ Leach Uranium Extraction rulemaking and               2.9
     unregistered general licensees........................
                                                            ------------
        Total surcharge costs..............................         77.7
Less 10 percent of NRC's FY 2008 total budget (less non-fee        -86.6
 items)....................................................
                                                            ------------
        Fee Relief to be Allocated to All Licensees' Annual         -8.9
         Fees..............................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Table IV shows how the NRC is allocating the $8.9 million in fee 
relief to each license fee class. (Individual amounts may not sum to 
totals due to rounding.) As explained previously, the NRC is allocating 
this fee relief to each license fee class based on the percent of the 
budget for that fee class compared to the NRC's total budget. The fee 
relief is used to partially offset the required annual fee recovery 
from each fee class. Sections 171.15(d)(1) and 171.16(e)

[[Page 32392]]

clarify that the surcharge allocated to annual fees may be negative 
(i.e., an annual fee reduction).
    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. Table IV also shows the allocation of the LLW 
surcharge. Because LLW activities support NRC licensees, the costs of 
these activities are not offset by the NRC's fee relief. For FY 2008, 
the LLW surcharge cost is $2.8 million. The annual fee for the 
materials users fee class includes a surcharge (i.e., not an annual fee 
reduction), because the LLW surcharge allocated to the fee class is 
greater than its allocated fee relief.

                              Table IV.--Allocation of Fee Relief and LLW Surcharge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                       LLW surcharge        Non-LLW surcharge  (fee
                                                --------------------------        reduction)
                                                                          --------------------------  Total  $M
                                                   Percent         $M        Percent         $M
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating Power Reactors.......................           74          2.1         89.6         -8.0         -5.9
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning.....  ...........  ...........          2.9         -0.3         -0.3
Test and Research Reactors.....................  ...........  ...........          0.1          0.0          0.0
Fuel Facilities................................            8          0.2          4.1         -0.4         -0.1
Materials Users................................           18          0.5          2.5         -0.2          0.3
Transportation.................................  ...........  ...........          0.4          0.0          0.0
Rare Earth Facilities..........................  ...........  ...........          0.0          0.0          0.0
Uranium Recovery...............................  ...........  ...........          0.3          0.0          0.0
                                                ==============
    Total Surcharge............................          100          2.8        100.0         -8.9         -6.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Agreement State Activities
    By letter dated November 9, 2006, Governor Edward Rendell of the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 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 NRC approved the request. This 
resulted in the transfer of approximately 650 licenses from the NRC to 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania effective March 31, 2008.
    The continuing costs of Agreement State regulatory support and 
oversight for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as for any other 
Agreement State, are recovered through the surcharge (as reduced by the 
10 percent of its budget that the NRC receives in appropriations each 
year for these types of activities), consistent with existing policy. 
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. The NRC has updated the 
allocation percentage in its fee calculation to make sure that 
resources are allocated equitably between the NRC materials users fee 
class and the Agreement States surcharge category. Accordingly, as a 
result of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania becoming an Agreement State, 
the NRC has increased the percentage of materials users regulatory 
infrastructure costs prorated to the surcharge category from 80 percent 
in FY 2007 to 82 percent in FY 2008. 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.
    The number of NRC materials users licensees also has been updated 
to reflect the transfer of licensees to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania effective March 31, 2008. Because of the effective date of 
March 31, 2008, which is at the end of the first half of the FY, the 
approximately 650 licensees transferred to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania are subject to one-half of their NRC annual fee for FY 
2008. The number of materials users licensees has been revised to 
reflect that NRC will still collect one-half of the annual fee from 
these licensees. Also, the single NRC rare earth license under fee 
category 2.A.(2)(c) has been transferred to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania. Because no other rare earth facility application is 
expected for FY 2008, an annual fee was not computed for fee category 
2.A.(2)(c). As with other licensees transferred to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania in FY 2008, this rare earth facility paid one-half of the 
annual fee in effect on its anniversary date in January 2008.
    This is not a substantive policy change, but rather a calculation 
change that will result in a more accurate estimate of the actual costs 
of Agreement State oversight activities.
3. Revised Annual Fees
    The NRC is revising its annual fees in Sec.  Sec.  171.15 and 
171.16 for FY 2008 to recover approximately 90 percent of the NRC's FY 
2008 budget authority less the non-fee amounts and the estimated amount 
to be recovered through part 170 fees. The part 170 estimate for this 
final rule increased by approximately $8 million from the proposed fee 
rule based on the latest invoice data available. The total amount to be 
recovered through annual fees for FY 2008 decreased to $468.9 million 
compared with $477.2 million in the proposed fee rule primarily due to 
the increase in the part 170 estimate. The required annual fee 
collection in FY 2007 was $465.3 million.
    The NRC uses one of two methods to determine the amounts of the 
annual fees, for each type of licensee, 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.
    As explained in the FY 2006 final fee rule (71 FR 30733; May 30, 
2006), the Commission has determined that the agency should proceed 
with a presumption in favor of rebaselining in calculating annual fees 
each year, and that the percent change method should be used 
infrequently. This is because the Commission expects that most years 
there will be budget and other changes that warrant the use of the 
rebaselining method.
    Rebaselining fees results in increased annual fees compared with FY 
2007 for two classes of licensees (power reactors

[[Page 32393]]

and non-power reactors), and decreased annual fees for five classes of 
licensees (spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning, fuel facilities, 
uranium recovery, materials users, and transportation). There is no 
annual fee for the rare earth fee class because this NRC fee class will 
no longer exist in FY 2008. As discussed in Section III.B.2 of this 
document, ``Agreement State Activities,'' NRC's only rare earth 
facility transferred to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which became 
an Agreement State, effective March 31, 2008. In FY 2008, this rare 
earth facility paid one-half of the annual fee in effect on its 
anniversary date.
    The significant factors affecting the changes to the annual fee 
amounts as compared with FY 2007 are the increase in budgeted resources 
for new reactor activities, a higher part 170 revenue estimate, and 
higher prior year fee collections. The NRC's total fee recoverable 
budget, as mandated by law, is approximately $109.8 million larger in 
FY 2008 as compared with FY 2007. Because much of this increase is for 
the additional workload demand in the area of new reactor licensing, 
this increase mainly affects the operating power reactors' annual fees. 
Other factors affecting all annual fees include the distribution of 
budgeted costs to the different classes of licenses (based on the 
specific activities NRC will perform in FY 2008), the estimated part 
170 collections for the various classes of licenses, and allocation of 
the fee relief to all fee classes. The percentage of the NRC's budget 
not subject to fee recovery remained unchanged at 10 percent from FY 
2007 to FY 2008.
    Table V shows the rebaselined annual fees for FY 2008 for a 
representative list of categories of licenses. The FY 2007 fee is also 
shown for comparative purposes.

              Table V.--Rebaselined Annual Fees for FY 2008
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                              FY 2007         FY 2008
       Class/category of licenses           annual fee      annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating Power Reactors (including           $4,043,000      $4,167,000
 Spent FuelStorage/Reactor
 Decommissioning annual fee)............
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor                       159,000         135,000
 Decommissioning........................
Test and Research Reactors (Non-power             76,300          76,500
 Reactors)..............................
High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility.....       4,096,000       3,007,000
Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility......       1,237,000         899,000
UF6 Conversion Facility.................         811,000         589,000
Conventional Mills......................          18,700          10,300
Typical Materials Users:
    Radiographers.......................          14,100          11,100
    Well Loggers........................           4,400           3,400
    Gauge Users (Category 3P)...........           2,700           2,100
    Broad Scope Medical.................          29,000          22,900
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The budgeted costs allocated to each class of licenses and the 
calculations of the rebaselined fees are described in paragraphs a. 
through h. of this section. The work papers which support this final 
rule show in detail the allocation of NRC's budgeted resources for each 
class of license and how the fees are calculated. The reports included 
in these work papers summarize the FY 2008 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 2007 fees. In FY 2008, NRC has also 
revised the format of the work papers to make it easier for 
stakeholders to find the information supporting this final fee rule. 
The sequence of the information in the work papers now matches the 
sequence in this final fee rule. In addition, a brief overview of each 
of the tabs in the work papers has been added for the reader's 
convenience. 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. The work papers may also be examined 
at the NRC PDR located at One White Flint North, Room O-1F22, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
a. Fuel Facilities
    The FY 2008 budgeted cost to be recovered in the annual fees 
assessment to the fuel facility class of licenses (which includes 
licensees in fee categories 1.A.(1)(a), 1.A.(1)(b), 1.A.(2)(a), 
1.A.(2)(b), 1.A.(2)(c), 1.E., and 2.A.(1), under Sec.  171.16) is 
approximately $13.9 million. This value is 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 fee relief (negative surcharge), allocated 
generic transportation resources, and carryover. The summary 
calculations used to derive this value are presented in Table VI for FY 
2008, with FY 2007 values shown for comparison. (Individual values may 
not sum to totals due to rounding.)

     Table VI.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Fuel Facilities
                          [Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FY 2007      FY 2008
           Summary fee calculations                final        final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources......................        $32.2        $31.5
Less estimated part 170 receipts..............        -13.6        -17.2
                                               -------------------------
    Net part 171 resources....................         18.6         14.3
Allocated generic transportation..............         +0.5         +0.5
Allocated surcharge...........................         -0.2         -0.1

[[Page 32394]]

 
Billing adjustments (including carryover).....         +0.1         -0.8
                                               -------------------------
    Total required annual fee recovery........         18.9         13.9
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The decrease in fuel facilities FY 2008 total budgeted cost to be 
recovered compared with FY 2007 is due to lower fuel facility resources 
for licensing activities, a higher part 170 revenue estimate, and 
adjustment for higher carryover. The part 170 revenue estimate for FY 
2008 final rule increased by approximately 1 percent compared with the 
proposed rule due to increased billing for fuel facilities. This 
results in lower FY 2008 annual fees for fuel facilities in this final 
fee rule.
    The total required annual fee recovery amount is allocated to the 
individual fuel facility licensees based on the effort/fee 
determination matrix developed for the FY 1999 final fee rule (64 FR 
31447; June 10, 1999). In the matrix included in the NRC publicly 
available work papers, licensees are grouped into categories according 
to their licensed activities (i.e., nuclear material enrichment, 
processing operations, and material form). In addition, the licensees 
are grouped 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 (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. Second, 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: 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 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 regulatory effort for each fee category (not per 
facility). Note that the effort factors for the High Enriched Uranium 
Fuel fee category have changed from FY 2007. The safety and safeguards 
factors increased in FY 2008 to reflect NRC's review of an amendment 
request by a licensee to handle liquid UF6 workload. Taking 
into account both of these changes, the total safety and safeguards 
effort factor change is relatively small.

                                 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       92 (35.8)      102 (53.7)
Uranium Enrichment..............................................               2       70 (27.2)       40 (21.1)
Low Enriched Uranium Fuel.......................................               3       66 (25.7)       21 (11.1)
UF6 Conversion..................................................               1        12 (4.7)         7 (3.7)
Limited Operations..............................................               1         8 (3.1)         3 (1.6)
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration.........................               1         3 (1.2)        15 (7.9)
Hot Cell........................................................               1         6 (2.3)         2 (1.1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The budgeted resources for safety activities ($8,045,570) are 
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

[[Page 32395]]

facilities is 100, and the total effort factor for safety activities 
for a given fee category is 10, that fee category will be allocated 10 
percent of the total budgeted resources for safety activities. 
Similarly, the budgeted resources for safeguards activities 
($5,948,086) are allocated to each fee category based on its percent of 
the total regulatory effort for safeguards activities. The fuel 
facility fee class' portion of the fee relief (negative surcharge of 
$137,150) and the billing adjustment (a fee reduction in FY 2008 of 
$752,859) 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 of 
licensees in that fee category as summarized in Table VIII.

              Table VIII.--Annual Fees for Fuel Facilities
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              FY 2008
              Facility type (fee category)                  annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Enriched Uranium Fuel..............................      $3,007,000
Uranium Enrichment......................................       1,705,000
Low Enriched Uranium....................................         899,000
UF6 Conversion..........................................         589,000
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration.................         558,000
Limited Operations Facility.............................         341,000
Hot Cell (and others)...................................         248,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The NRC does not expect to authorize operation of any new uranium 
enrichment facility in FY 2008. The annual fee applicable to any type 
of new uranium enrichment facility is the annual fee in Sec.  171.16, 
fee category 1.E., Uranium Enrichment, unless the NRC establishes a new 
fee category for the facility in a subsequent rulemaking.
b. Uranium Recovery Facilities
    The total FY 2008 budgeted cost to be recovered through annual fees 
assessed to the uranium recovery class (which includes licensees in fee 
categories 2.A.(2)(a), 2.A.(2)(b), 2.A.(3), 2.A.(4), 2.A.(5) and 18.B., 
under Sec.  171.16), is approximately $0.46 million. The derivation of 
this value is shown in Table IX, with FY 2007 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]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FY 2007      FY 2008
           Summary fee calculations                final        final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources......................        $1.32        $2.56
Less estimated part 170 receipts..............        -0.61        -2.02
                                               -------------------------
    Net part 171 resources....................         0.71         0.54
Allocated generic transportation..............         +N/A         +N/A
Allocated surcharge...........................        -0.02        -0.03
                                               -------------------------
Billing adjustments (including carryover).....        +0.00        -0.06
    Total required annual fee recovery........         0.69         0.46
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The decrease in the total required annual fee recovery in FY 2008 
compared with FY 2007 is mainly due to a higher part 170 revenue 
estimate and higher billing adjustment partially offset by an increase 
in uranium recovery licensing and inspection resources. The budgeted 
resources for the final rule increased by approximately $0.9 million 
compared with the proposed rule due to change in allocations to the 
uranium recovery fee class. More of FY 2008 resources are being used to 
support licensing work for new uranium recovery facilities and less for 
generic decommissioning activities related to uranium recovery sites. 
Therefore, resources from the surcharge category, generic 
decommissioning/reclamation, were shifted to the uranium recovery fee 
class for the final rule. This increase in the uranium recovery budget 
allocations was offset by a higher part 170 revenue estimate compared 
with the proposed rule. The part 170 revenue estimate increased by 
$1.07 million compared with the proposed rule due to increased billing 
for review of applications for new uranium recovery facilities. The 
annual fee in the final rule decreased compared with the proposed rule 
for the DOE and non DOE licensees in the uranium recovery fee class 
primarily due to higher part 170 revenue estimate.
    Of the required annual fee collections, $398,000 (rounded) is 
assessed to DOE for licensing its Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation 
Control Act (UMTRCA) sites under fee category 18.B. The remaining 
$58,000 (rounded) will be recovered through annual fees assessed to the 
other licensees in this fee class (i.e., conventional mills, in-situ 
leach solution mining facilities), 11e.(2) mill tailings disposal 
facilities (incidental to existing tailings sites), and a uranium water 
treatment facility.
    In the FY 2002 final fee rule (67 FR 42611; June 24, 2002), the NRC 
developed a fee recovery methodology for the uranium recovery fee class 
that would allocate the total annual fee amount for this fee class, 
less the amounts specifically budgeted for Title I activities, equally 
between DOE (for its UMTRCA Title I and Title II sites) and the other 
licensees in this fee class. In the FY 2007 final rule (72 FR 31414; 
June 6, 2007), the NRC changed this

[[Page 32396]]

methodology to allocate 45 percent of the total annual fee amount, less 
the amounts specifically budgeted for Title I activities, to DOE's 
UMTRCA annual fee and 55 percent to the other licensees in this fee 
class. Based on updated information, NRC is changing this allocation 
percentage in FY 2008. In FY 2008, 40 percent of the total annual fee 
amount of $484,581, less $359,471 specifically budgeted for Title I 
activities, is allocated to DOE's UMTRCA sites. The remaining 60 
percent of the total annual fee (less the amounts specifically budgeted 
for Title I activities) is allocated to other licensees. The reduction 
in allocation percentage of budgeted resources for licensing the DOE is 
based on the reduced effort expended for DOE UMTRCA sites.
    The annual fee assessed to DOE is the sum of the resources 
specifically budgeted for NRC's Title I activities plus 40 percent of 
the remaining annual fee amount (including the surcharge and generic/
other costs) for the uranium recovery class. The remaining 60 percent 
of the budgeted resources, surcharge, and generic/other costs allocated 
to this fee class are assessed to the other NRC uranium recovery 
licensees. 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 (UMTRCA) Title I and Title II
 general licenses:
    UMTRCA Title I budgeted costs.......................        $359,471
    40 percent of generic/other uranium recovery                  50,044
     budgeted costs.....................................
    40 percent of uranium recovery surcharge............         -11,585
                                                         ---------------
        Total Annual Fee Amount for DOE (rounded).......         398,000
Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium Recovery Licenses:
    60 percent of generic/other uranium recovery                  75,066
     budgeted costs less the amounts specifically
     budgeted for Title I activities....................
    60 percent of uranium recovery surcharge............         -17,377
                                                         ---------------
        Total Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium                 57,688
         Recovery Licenses..............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The NRC will continue to use a matrix (which is included in the 
supporting work papers) to determine the level of effort associated 
with regulating the different (non-DOE) licensees in this fee class. 
The weights derived in this matrix are used to allocate the 
approximately $58,000 annual fee amount to these licensees. The use of 
this uranium recovery annual fee matrix was established in the FY 1995 
final fee rule (60 FR 32217; June 20, 1995). The FY 2008 matrix is 
described as follows.
    First, the methodology identifies the categories of licenses 
included in this fee class (excluding DOE). In FY 2008, these 
categories are conventional uranium mills (Class I facilities), uranium 
solution mining facilities (Class II facilities), mill tailings 
disposal facilities (11e.(2) disposal facilities), and uranium water 
treatment facilities. The uranium water treatment facility fee category 
in the uranium recovery fee class was created in FY 2007 (72 FR 31413; 
June 6, 2007).
    Second, the matrix identifies the types of operating activities 
that support these licensees. Note that the activities related to 
generic decommissioning/reclamation are not included in the matrix, 
because generic decommissioning/reclamation activities are included in 
the surcharge, and therefore need not be a factor in determining annual 
fees. The activities included in the FY 2008 matrix are `operations,' 
`waste operations,' and `groundwater remediation.' The relative weight 
of each type of activity is then determined, based on the regulatory 
resources associated with each activity. The `operations,' `waste 
operations,' and `groundwater remediation' activities have weights of 
10, 5, and 10, respectively, in the FY 2008 matrix.
    Once the structure of the matrix is established, the NRC's uranium 
recovery project managers and regulatory analysts determine the level 
of effort associated with regulating each of these facilities. This is 
done by assigning, for each fee category, separate effort factors for 
each type of regulatory activity in the matrix. Effort factors are 
assigned as follows: One (low regulatory effort), five (moderate 
regulatory effort), and ten (high regulatory effort). These effort 
factors are first multiplied by the relative weight assigned to each 
activity (described previously). Total effort factors by fee category, 
and per licensee in each fee category, are then calculated. These 
effort factors thus reflect the relative regulatory effort associated 
with each licensee and fee category.
    The effort factors per licensee and per fee category, for each of 
the non-DOE fee categories included in the uranium recovery fee class, 
are as follows:

                             Table XI.--Effort Factors for Uranium Recovery Licenses
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                           Total effort factor
                                                               Number of      Effort   -------------------------
                        Fee category                           licensees   factor  per                 Percent
                                                                             licensee      Value        total
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class I (conventional mills)................................            1           75           75           18
Class II (solution mining)..................................            3           75          225           54
11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites......            1           75           75           18
Uranium water treatment.....................................            1           45           45           11
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The annual fee per licensee is calculated by dividing the total 
allocated budgeted resources for the fee category by the number of 
licensees in that fee category as summarized in Table XII. Applying 
these factors to the approximately $58,000 in budgeted costs to be 
recovered from non-DOE uranium recovery licensees results in the 
following annual fees for FY 2008:

[[Page 32397]]



 Table XII.--Annual Fees for Uranium Recovery Licensees (Other Than DOE)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              FY 2008
                      Facility type                         annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class I (conventional mills)............................         $10,300
Class II (solution mining)..............................          10,300
11e.(2) disposal........................................             N/A
11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites..          10,300
Uranium water treatment.................................           6,200
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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.
c. Operating Power Reactors
    The approximately $419.3 million in budgeted costs to be recovered 
through FY 2008 annual fees assessed to the power reactor class was 
calculated as shown in Table XIII. FY 2007 values are shown for 
comparison. (Individual values 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 2007 final   FY 2008 final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................          $588.6          $698.8
Less estimated part 170 receipts........          -180.7          -258.1
                                         -------------------------------
    Net part 171 resources..............           407.9           440.7
Allocated generic transportation........            +1.0            +1.0
Allocated surcharge.....................            -6.0            -5.9
Billing adjustments (including                      +1.1           -16.5
 carryover).............................
                                         -------------------------------
    Total required annual fee recovery..           404.0           419.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The budgeted costs to be recovered through annual fees to power 
reactors are divided equally among the 104 power reactors licensed to 
operate. This results in a FY 2008 annual fee of $4,032,000 per 
reactor. Additionally, each power reactor licensed to operate is 
assessed the FY 2008 spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning annual 
fee of $135,000. This results in a total FY 2008 annual fee of 
$4,167,000 for each power reactor licensed to operate. The part 170 
revenue estimate for the final rule increased by approximately $5.3 
million compared with the proposed rule due to increased billings for 
work related to new applications. As a result, the annual fee for each 
power reactor decreased by approximately 2 percent in the final rule.
    The annual fee for power reactors increases in FY 2008 compared to 
FY 2007 due to an increase in budgeted resources for a number of 
activities, including regulatory infrastructure for new reactor 
licensing activities related to combined license applications and 
design certifications. This increase is partially offset by the higher 
estimated part 170 collections, and adjustment for higher carryover 
compared with FY 2007. The annual fees for power reactors are presented 
in Sec.  171.15.
d. Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning
    For FY 2008, budgeted costs of approximately $16.6 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 shows the calculation of this annual fee 
amount. FY 2007 values are shown for comparison. (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]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FY 2007      FY 2008
           Summary fee calculations                final        final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources......................        $23.9        $22.4
Less estimated part 170 receipts..............         -4.2         -5.3
                                               -------------------------
    Net part 171 resources....................         19.7         17.1
Allocated generic transportation..............         +0.3         +0.2
Allocated surcharge...........................         -0.4         -0.3
Billing adjustments (including carryover).....         +0.0         -0.5
                                               -------------------------
    Total required annual fee recovery........         19.6         16.6
------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 32398]]

    The required annual fee recovery amount is divided equally among 
123 licensees, resulting in a FY 2008 annual fee of $135,000 per 
licensee. The total required annual fee for this fee class decreased in 
FY 2008 compared to FY 2007 due to a decrease in the budgeted resources 
for decommissioning, higher estimated part 170 collections, and 
adjustment for higher carryover. The part 170 revenue estimate for the 
final rule increased by approximately 13 percent due to increased 
billings for spent fuel storage, which resulted in a lower annual fee 
compared with the proposed rule.
e. Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors)
    Approximately $310,000 in budgeted costs is to be recovered through 
annual fees assessed to the test and research reactor class of licenses 
for FY 2008. Table XV summarizes the annual fee calculation for test 
and research reactors for FY 2008. FY 2007 values are shown for 
comparison. (Individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)

    Table XV.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Test and Research
                                Reactors
                          [Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FY 2007      FY 2008
           Summary fee calculations                final        final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources......................        $0.85        $0.99
Less estimated part 170 receipts..............        -0.55        -0.66
                                               -------------------------
    Net part 171 resources....................         0.30         0.33
Allocated generic transportation..............        +0.01        +0.01
Allocated surcharge...........................        -0.01        -0.01
Billing adjustments (including carryover).....        +0.00        -0.02
                                               -------------------------
    Total required annual fee recovery........         0.31         0.31
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This required annual fee recovery amount is divided equally among 
the 4 test and research reactors subject to annual fees and results in 
a FY 2008 annual fee of $76,500 for each licensee. The slight increase 
in annual fees from FY 2007 to FY 2008 is due to an increase in budget 
resources partially offset by a higher part 170 revenue estimate for 
test and research reactors class and adjustment for higher prior year 
collections. The part 170 revenue estimates for FY 2008 increased by 
approximately 20 percent compared with FY 2007 due to increased billing 
for test and research reactors, including Federal facilities. The 
Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorizes the NRC to bill Federal facilities 
for part 170 services.
f. Rare Earth Facilities
    As discussed previously in Section III.B.2 of this document, 
``Agreement State Activities'', NRC will no longer regulate any 
licensees under the Rare Earth fee class. The one licensee who has a 
specific license for receipt and processing of source material 
transferred to the Agreement State, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
effective March 31, 2008. In FY 2008, this rare earth facility paid 
one-half of the annual fee in effect on its anniversary date in January 
2008.
    Because the agency does not anticipate receiving an application for 
a rare earth facility this fiscal year, no budget resources were 
allocated to this fee class. NRC will not publish an annual fee for the 
fee category 2.A.(2)(c) in FY 2008.
g. Materials Users
    Table XVI shows the calculation of the FY 2008 annual fee amount 
for materials users licensees. FY 2007 values are shown for comparison. 
(Individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.) The 
following fee categories under Sec.  171.16 are included in this fee 
class: 1.C., 1.D., 2.B., 2.C., 3.A. through 3.S., 4.A. through 4.C., 
5.A., 5.B., 6.A., 7.A. through 7.C., 8.A., 9.A. through 9.D., 16, and 
17.

     Table XVI.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Materials Users
                          [Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FY 2007      FY 2008
           Summary fee calculations                final        final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources......................        $25.8        $22.8
Less estimated part 170 receipts..............         -1.2         -2.0
                                               -------------------------
    Net part 171 resources....................         24.6         20.8
Allocated generic transportation..............         +0.9         +0.9
Allocated surcharge...........................         +0.3         +0.3
Billing adjustments (including carryover).....         +0.0         -0.5
                                               -------------------------
    Total required annual fee recovery........         25.9         21.4
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The annual fee for materials users decreased in the final rule 
compared with the proposed rule due to a decrease in allocated generic 
transportation charge. The generic transportation charge decreased 
primarily due to higher part 170 revenues for the Transportation fee 
class. See further discussion of the decrease in generic transportation 
resources in Section III.B.3.h. The total required annual fees to be 
recovered from materials licensees decreased in FY 2008 mainly because 
of decreases in the budgeted resources allocated to this fee class for 
licensing

[[Page 32399]]

activities, and adjustment for higher carryover. Annual fees for all 
fee categories within the materials users fee class decreased. The 
number of licensees also decreased because of the transfer of licensees 
to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Because the agreement with the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania became effective March 31, 2008, the 
licenses that transferred to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are 
subject to one-half of the NRC annual fees in FY 2008.
    To equitably and fairly allocate the FY 2008 $21.4 million 
(budgeted costs to be recovered in annual fees) assessed to the 
approximately 4,400 diverse materials users licensees, the NRC will 
continue 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 NRC's 
cost to regulate each category. This 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 
$14.7 million in general costs (including allocated generic 
transportation costs) and is 0.77 for FY 2008. The average inspection 
cost is the average inspection hours for each fee category multiplied 
by the hourly rate of $238. The inspection priority is the interval 
between routine inspections, expressed in years. The inspection 
multiplier is the multiple necessary to recover approximately $6.3 
million in inspection costs, and is 1.39 for FY 2008. The unique 
category costs are any special costs that the NRC has budgeted for a 
specific category of licenses. For FY 2008, approximately $103,000 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 to be assessed to each licensee also includes a 
share of the $226,000 in fee relief allocated to the materials users 
fee class (see Section III.B.1., ``Application of Fee Relief,'' of this 
document), and for certain categories of these licensees, a share of 
the approximately $509,000 in LLW surcharge costs allocated to the fee 
class. The annual fee for each fee category is shown in Sec.  
171.16(d).
h. Transportation
    Table XVII shows the calculation of the FY 2008 generic 
transportation budgeted resources to be recovered through annual fees. 
FY 2007 values are shown for comparison. (Individual values may not sum 
to totals due to rounding.)

     Table XVII.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Transportation
                          [Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FY 2007      FY 2008
           Summary fee calculations                final        final
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources......................         $5.0         $5.7
Less estimated part 170 receipts..............         -1.2         -2.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Net part 171 resources....................          3.8          3.4
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The net FY 2008 budgeted resources for generic transportation 
activities, including those to support DOE Certificates of Compliance 
(CoCs), are $3.4 million. The net part 171 resources for these 
activities in the FY 2008 final rule decreased by $0.6 million compared 
with the proposed rule. This decrease in the final rule is primarily 
due to approximately 35 percent increase in part 170 revenue estimate 
as a result of increased billings for transportation-related reviews. 
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).
    Consistent with the policy established in the NRC's FY 2006 final 
fee rule (71 FR 30734; May 30, 2006), the NRC will recover generic 
transportation costs unrelated to DOE as part of existing annual fees 
for license fee classes. NRC will continue to assess a separate annual 
fee under Sec.  171.16, fee category 18.A., for DOE transportation 
activities. The CoCs for DOE decreased in FY 2008 compared to FY 2007 
resulting in a lower annual fee for DOE under fee category 18.A.
    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. 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. In FY 2008, the 
generic transportation cost allocated to the other fee classes 
decreased slightly compared to FY 2007 due to the decrease in net 
budgeted resources for transportation. For the final fee rule, the 
generic transportation cost allocation to the other fee classes 
decreased compared with the proposed rule due to higher part 170 
estimate for generic transportation activities.
    The distribution of these resources to the license fee classes and 
DOE is shown in Table XVIII. (Individual values may not sum to totals 
due to rounding.) The distribution is adjusted to account for the 
licensees in each fee class that are fee exempt. For example, if 3 CoCs 
benefit the entire test and research reactor class, but only 4 of 30 
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 
((4/30)x3), or 0.4 CoCs.

[[Page 32400]]



                     Table XVIII.--Distribution of Generic Transportation Resources, FY 2008
                                              [Dollars in millions]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                     Allocated
                                                                    Number CoCs   (Percentage of      generic
                      License fee class/DOE                       benefiting fee    total CoCs    transportation
                                                                  class (or DOE)     (percent)       resources
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total...........................................................           128.0           100.0           $3.41
DOE.............................................................            31.0            24.2            0.83
Operating Power Reactors........................................            37.0            28.9            0.99
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning......................             9.0             7.0            0.24
Test and Research Reactors......................................             0.4             0.3            0.01
Fuel Facilities.................................................            18.0            14.1            0.48
Materials Users.................................................            32.6            25.4            0.87
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The NRC will continue to assess DOE an annual fee based on the part 
71 CoCs it holds, and not allocate these DOE-related resources to other 
licensees' annual fees, because these resources specifically support 
DOE. Note that DOE's annual fee includes a reduction for the fee relief 
(see Section III.B.1, 'Application of ``Fee Relief''', of this 
document), resulting in a total annual fee of $719,000 for FY 2008. The 
fee decrease from last year is primarily due to a decrease in the 
number of DOE CoCs. The annual fee for DOE in the final rule decreased 
by approximately 18 percent compared with the proposed rule due to 
higher part 170 estimate.
4. Administrative Amendments
    The NRC is adding program codes next to the materials users fee 
categories in Sec.  171.16. At the time NRC receives a materials users 
license application, a five-digit program code number is assigned by 
the agency to each license to designate the major activity or principal 
use authorized in the license. More than one code may apply to a given 
license. The fee amount for the license under the 10 CFR parts 170 and 
171 is determined by the fee category which is also based on the 
authorized usage described on the license. To reduce the risk of 
misinterpretation of material uses authorized in the license while 
establishing a fee category, the NRC is implementing a process that 
links a program code directly to a fee category. Once a program code is 
assigned to the license, it will assist the licensee to correctly 
identify the fee amount(s) by looking up the program code(s) in Sec.  
171.16.
    The NRC is modifying the second sentence of footnote 1 in Sec.  
171.16 to clarify that the annual fee waiver will be granted if the 
licensed activities have permanently ceased before the beginning of the 
fiscal year. The reference to the last day of the prior year as the 
date for cessation of licensed activities has been deleted. This will 
improve the clarity of the sentence.
    In summary, the NRC is--
    1. Using the NRC's fee relief to reduce all licensees' annual fees, 
based on their percent of the NRC budget;
    2. Revising the number of NRC licensees due to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania becoming an Agreement State effective March 31, 2008;
    3. Establishing rebaselined annual fees for FY 2008; and
    4. Making certain administrative changes for purposes of 
clarification and consistency.

IV. Voluntary Consensus Standards

    The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, 15 
U.S.C. 3701, 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 2008, as required by the OBRA-90, as amended. 
This action does not constitute the establishment of a 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 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,

[[Page 32401]]

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, 42 U.S.C. 4321;
    (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. The FY 
2001 Energy and Water Development Appropriation Act (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 2007 EWDAA extended this 90 percent fee recovery 
requirement for FY 2007. Section 637 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 
made the 90 percent fee recovery requirement permanent in FY 2007. As a 
result, the NRC is required to recover approximately 90 percent of its 
FY 2008 budget authority, less the amounts appropriated from the NWF, 
amounts appropriated for WIR, and amounts appropriated for generic 
homeland security activities through fees. To comply with this 
statutory requirement and in accordance with 10 CFR 171.13, the NRC is 
publishing the amount of the FY 2008 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 2008 budget of $926.1 million less the funds directly 
appropriated from the NWF to cover the NRC's high-level waste program 
and for WIR, generic homeland security 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 OBRA-90, as amended, to recover 
approximately 90 percent of its FY 2008 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 2008. This rule 
would 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 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 2008.

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 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. Congressional Review Act

    In accordance with the Congressional Review Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C. 
801-808, 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. 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 continues 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)); sec. 
651(e), Pub. L. 109-58, 119 Stat. 806-810 (42 U.S.C. 2014, 2021, 
2021b, 2111).


0
2. Section 170.20 is revised to read as follows:

[[Page 32402]]

Sec.  170.20  Average cost per professional staff-hour.

    Fees for permits, licenses, amendments, renewals, special projects, 
10 CFR 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 professional staff-hour 
rate of $238 per hour.

0
3. In Sec.  170.21, in the table, fee category K is 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; or           $15,500
             license exemption request..................
        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; or             9,100
             license exemption request..................
        3. Application for export of components
         requiring the assistance of the Executive
         Branch to obtain foreign government assurances.
            Application--new license, or amendment; or             3,800
             license exemption request..................
        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; or             2,400
             license exemption request..................
        5. Minor amendment of any active export or
         import license, for example, to extend the
         expiration date, change domestic information,
         or make other revisions which do not involve
         any substantive changes to license terms or
         conditions or to the type of facility or
         component authorized for export and therefore,
         do not require in-depth analysis or review or
         consultation with the Executive Branch, U.S.
         host state, or foreign government authorities.
            Minor amendment to license..................             720
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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.
\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
4. In Sec.  170.31, the table 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.

* * * * *

                       Schedule of Materials Fees
                     [See footnotes at end of table]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category of materials licenses and type of fees
                      \1\                               Fee \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) [Program
         Code(s): 21130].
        (b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible  Full Cost.
         Form Used for Fabrication of Power
         Reactor Fuel [Program Code(s): 21210].
    (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.
         [Program Code(s): 21310, 21320].
        (b) Gas centrifuge enrichment            Full Cost.
         demonstration facilities.
        (c) Others, including hot cell           Full Cost.
         facilities.

[[Page 32403]]

 
    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) [Program Code(s):
     23200].
    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 [Program Code(s): 22140]...  $1,100.
    D. All other special nuclear material
     licenses, except licenses authorizing
     special nuclear material in unsealed form
     in a 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
     under Category 1.A \4\
        Application [Program Code(s): 22110,     2,200.
         22111, 22120, 22131, 22136, 22150,
         22151, 22161, 22163, 22170, 23100,
         23300, 23310].
    E. Licenses or certificates for              Full Cost.
     construction and operation of a uranium
     enrichment facility [Program Code(s):
     21200].
2. Source material:
    A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of    Full Cost.
     source material for refining uranium mill
     concentrates to uranium hexafluoride
     [Program Code(s): 11400].
    (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 [Program          Full Cost.
         Code(s): 11100].
        (b) Class II facilities [Program         Full Cost.
         Code(s): 11500].
        (c) Other facilities [Program Code(s):   Full Cost.
         11700].
    (3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of   Full Cost.
     byproduct material, as defined in Sec.
     11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from
     other persons for possession and disposal,
     except those licenses subject to the fees
     in Category 2.A.(2) or Category 2.A.(4)
     [Program Code(s): 11600].
    (4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of   Full Cost.
     byproduct material, as defined in Sec.
     11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from
     other persons for possession and disposal
     incidental to the disposal of the uranium
     waste tailings generated by the licensee's
     milling operations, except those licenses
     subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2).
    (5) Licenses that authorize the possession   Full Cost.
     of source material related to removal of
     contaminants (source material) from
     drinking water.
    B. Licenses which authorize the possession,
     use, and/or installation of source
     material for shielding.
        Application [Program Code(s): 11210]...  260.
    C. All other source material licenses.
        Application [Program Code(s): 11200,     9,400.
         11220, 11221, 11230, 11300, 11800,
         11810].
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 [Program Code(s): 03211,     11,200.
         03212, 03213].
    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 [Program Code(s): 03214,     4,200.
         03215, 22135, 22162].
    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 3.D.
        Application [Program Code(s): 02500,     7,400.
         02511, 02513].
    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 [Program Code(s): 02512,     4,100.
         02514].
    E. Licenses for possession and use of
     byproduct material in sealed sources for
     irradiation of materials in which the
     source is not removed from its shield
     (self-shielded units).
        Application [Program Code(s): 03510,     2,700.
         03520].
    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 [Program Code(s): 03511]...  5,600.
    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 [Program Code(s): 03521]...  13,300.
    H. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material that require
     device review to persons exempt from the
     licensing requirements of part 30 of this
     chapter. The category does not include
     specific licenses authorizing
     redistribution of items that have been
     authorized for distribution to persons
     exempt from the licensing requirements of
     part 30 of this chapter.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03255]...  9,700.

[[Page 32404]]

 
    I. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material or
     quantities of byproduct material that do
     not require device evaluation to persons
     exempt from the licensing requirements of
     part 30 of this chapter. This category
     does not include specific licenses
     authorizing redistribution of items that
     have been authorized for distribution to
     persons exempt from the licensing
     requirements of part 30 of this chapter.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03250,     9,700.
         03251, 03252, 03253, 03254, 03256].
    J. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material that require
     sealed source and/or device review to
     persons generally licensed under part 31
     of this chapter. This category does not
     include specific licenses authorizing
     redistribution of items that have been
     authorized for distribution to persons
     generally licensed under part 31 of this
     chapter.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03240,     1,700.
         03241, 03243].
    K. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material or
     quantities of byproduct material that do
     not require sealed source and/or device
     review to persons generally licensed under
     part 31 of this chapter. This category
     does not include specific licenses
     authorizing redistribution of items that
     have been authorized for distribution to
     persons generally licensed under part 31
     of this chapter.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03242,     1,000.
         03244].
    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 [Program Code(s): 01100,     9,400.
         01110, 01120, 03610, 03611, 03612,
         03613].
    M. Other licenses for possession and use of
     byproduct material issued under part 30 of
     this chapter for research and development
     that do not authorize commercial
     distribution.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03620]...  3,300.
    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 4.A., 4.B., and 4.C
        Application [Program Code(s): 03219,     6,100.
         03225, 03226].
    O. Licenses for possession and use of
     byproduct material issued under part 34 of
     this chapter for industrial radiography
     operations.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03310,     4,500.
         03320].
    P. All other specific byproduct material
     licenses, except those in Categories 4.A.
     through 9.D.
        Application [Program Code(s): 02400,     1,300.
         02410, 03120, 03121, 03122, 03123,
         03124, 03220, 03221, 03222, 03800,
         03810, 22130].
    Q. Registration of a device(s) generally
     licensed under part 31 of this chapter.
        Registration...........................  270.
    R. Possession of items or products
     containing radium-226 identified in 10 CFR
     31.12 which exceed the number of items or
     limits specified in that section.\6\
    1. Possession of quantities exceeding the
     number of items or limits in 10 CFR
     31.12(a)(4) or (5) but less than or equal
     to 10 times the number of items or limits
     specified.
        Application [Program Code(s): 02700]...  550.
    2. Possession of quantities exceeding 10
     times the number of items or limits
     specified in 10 CFR 31.12(a)(4) or (5).C.
        Application [Program Code(s): 02710]...  1,300.
    S. Licenses for production of accelerator-
     produced radionuclides.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03210]...  7,400.
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 [Program
     Code(s): 03231, 03233, 03235, 03236,
     06100, 06101].
    B. Licenses specifically authorizing the
     receipt of waste byproduct material,
     source material, or special nuclear
     material from other persons for the
     purpose of packaging or repackaging the
     material. The licensee will dispose of the
     material by transfer to another person
     authorized to receive or dispose of the
     material.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03234]...  2,900.
    C. Licenses specifically authorizing the
     receipt of prepackaged waste byproduct
     material, source material, or special
     nuclear material from other persons. The
     licensee will dispose of the material by
     transfer to another person authorized to
     receive or dispose of the material.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03232]...  4,300.
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 [Program Code(s): 03110,     1,600.
         03111, 03112].
    B. Licenses for possession and use of
     byproduct material for field flooding
     tracer studies.
        Licensing [Program Code(s): 03113].....  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 [Program Code(s): 03218]...  19,000.
7. Medical licenses:

[[Page 32405]]

 
    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 [Program Code(s): 02300,     10,400.
         02310].
    B. Licenses of broad scope issued to
     medical institutions or two or more
     physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and
     70 of this chapter authorizing research
     and development, including human use of
     byproduct material, except licenses for
     byproduct material, source material, or
     special nuclear material in sealed sources
     contained in teletherapy devices. This
     category also includes the possession and
     use of source material for shielding when
     authorized on the same license.
        Application [Program Code(s): 02110]...  7,400.
    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 [Program Code(s): 02120,     2,300.
         02121, 02200, 02201, 02210, 02220,
         02230, 02231, 02240, 22160].
8. Civil defense:
    A. Licenses for possession and use of
     byproduct material, source material, or
     special nuclear material for civil defense
     activities.
        Application [Program Code(s): 03710]...  550.
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...............  19,500.
    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...............  19,500.
    C. Safety evaluation of sealed sources
     containing byproduct material, source
     material, or special nuclear material,
     except reactor fuel, for commercial
     distribution.
        Application--each source...............  2,700.
    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...............  910.
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.
    2. Other Casks.............................  Full Cost.
    B. Quality assurance program approvals
     issued under part 71 of this chapter.
    1. Users and Fabricators.
        Application............................  4,400.
        Inspections............................  Full Cost.
    2. Users.
        Application............................  4,400.
        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 fuel  Full Cost.
 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.
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 amendment;  15,500.
         or license exemption request.
    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 amendment;  9,100.
         or license exemption request.
    C. Application for export of nuclear
     material, for example, routine reloads of
     low enriched uranium reactor fuel and/or
     natural uranium source material requiring
     the assistance of the Executive Branch to
     obtain foreign government assurances.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  3,800.
         or license exemption request.
    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.

[[Page 32406]]

 
        Application--new license, or amendment;  2,400.
         or license exemption request.
    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........................  720.
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;  15,500.
         or license exemption request.
    G. Application for export of Category 1
     materials requiring Executive Branch
     review, Commission review, and/or
     government-to-government consent.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  9,100.
         or license exemption request.
    H. Application for export of Category 1
     materials requiring Commission review and
     government-to-government consent.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  5,700.
         or license exemption request.
    I. Application for export of Category 1
     material requiring government-to-
     government consent
        Application--new license, or amendment;  4,800.
         or license exemption request.
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;  15,500.
         or license exemption request.
    K. Applications for export of Category 2
     materials requiring Executive Branch
     review and/or Commission review.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  9,100.
         or license exemption request.
    L. Application for the export of Category 2
     materials.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  4,300.
         or license exemption request.
Category 1 Imports:
    M. Application for the import of Category 1
     material requiring Commission review.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  4,500.
         or license exemption request.
    N. Application for the import of Category 1
     material.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  3,800.
         or license exemption request.
Category 2 Imports:
    O. Application for the import of Category 2
     material.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  3,300.
         or license exemption request.
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;  5,200.
         or license exemption request.
    Q. Application for the import of Category 1
     material with agent and multiple
     licensees.
        Application--new license, or amendment;  4,300.
         or license exemption request.
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........................  720.
16. Reciprocity:
    Agreement State licensees who conduct
     activities under the reciprocity
     provisions of 10 CFR 150.20.
        Application............................  1,400.
17. Master materials licenses of broad scope
 issued to Government agencies:
        Application............................  22,000.
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 fees--Separate charges, as shown in the schedule, will be
  assessed for pre-application consultations and reviews; applications
  for new licenses, approvals, or license terminations; possession only
  licenses; 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 1.C. only.
(b) Licensing fees. Fees for reviews of applications for new licenses
  and for renewals and amendments to existing licenses, pre-application
  consultations and reviews of other documents submitted to NRC for
  review, and project manager time for fee categories subject to full
  cost fees, are due upon notification by the Commission in accordance
  with 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 an export or
  import license or approval classified in more than one fee category
  must be accompanied by the prescribed amendment fee for the category
  affected by the amendment unless the amendment is applicable to two or
  more fee categories, in which case the amendment fee for the highest
  fee category would apply.

[[Page 32407]]

 
(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 9.A. through 9.D.
\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 1.A., 1.B., and 1.E. are not
  subject to fees under Categories 1.C. and 1.D. 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.
\6\ Persons who possess radium sources that are used for operational
  purposes in another fee category are not also subject to the fees in
  this category. (This exception does not apply if the radium sources
  are possessed for storage only.)

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
5. The authority citation for part 171 continues 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); sec. 651(e), Pub. L. 109-58, 119 Stat. 
806-810 (42 U.S.C. 2014, 2021, 2021b, 2111).


0
6. In Sec.  171.15, paragraph (b)(1), the introductory text of 
paragraph (b)(2), paragraph (c)(1), the introductory text of paragraphs 
(c)(2) and (d)(1), and paragraphs (d)(2), (d)(3), 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 2008 annual fee for each operating power reactor 
which must be collected by September 30, 2008, is $4,032,000.
    (2) The FY 2008 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 2008 spent storage/
reactor decommissioning base annual fee are shown in paragraphs 
(c)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section. The activities comprising the FY 
2008 surcharge are shown in paragraph (d)(1) of this section. The 
activities comprising the FY 2008 base annual fee for operating power 
reactors are as follows:
* * * * *
    (c)(1) The FY 2008 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 $135,000.
    (2) The FY 2008 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 2008 surcharge are shown in paragraph (d)(1) of this 
section. The activities comprising the FY 2008 spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning rebaselined annual fee are:
* * * * *
    (d)(1) The surcharge allocated to annual fees includes the budgeted 
resources for the activities listed in paragraph (d)(1)(i) of this 
section, plus the total budgeted resources for the activities included 
in paragraphs (d)(1)(ii) and (d)(1)(iii) of this section as reduced by 
the appropriations NRC receives for these types of activities. If the 
NRC's appropriations for these types of activities are greater than the 
budgeted resources for the activities included in paragraphs (d)(1)(ii) 
and (d)(1)(iii) of this section for a given FY, a negative surcharge 
(or annual fee reduction) will be allocated to annual fees. The 
activities comprising the FY 2008 surcharge are as follows:
* * * * *
    (2) The total FY 2008 surcharge allocated to the operating power 
reactor class of licenses is -$5.9 million, not including the amount 
allocated to the spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning class. The 
FY 2008 operating power reactor surcharge to be assessed to each 
operating power reactor is approximately -$57,000. This amount is 
calculated by dividing the total operating power reactor surcharge (-
$5.9 million) by the number of operating power reactors (104).
    (3) The FY 2008 surcharge allocated to the spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning class of licenses is -$258,000. The FY 2008 
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 -$2,097. 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 licensees who do not hold a 10 CFR part 50 license.
    (e) The FY 2008 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:

[[Page 32408]]



 
 
 
Research reactor.............................................    $76,500
Test reactor.................................................     76,500
 

0
7. In Sec.  171.16, paragraphs (c), (d), and the introductory text of 
paragraph (e) 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.

* * * * *
    (c) A licensee who is required to pay an annual fee under this 
section may qualify as a small entity. If a licensee qualifies as a 
small entity and provides the Commission with the proper certification 
along with its annual fee payment, the licensee may pay reduced annual 
fees as shown in the following table. Failure to file a small entity 
certification in a timely manner could result in the denial of any 
refund that might otherwise be due. The small entity fees are as 
follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Maximum
                                                          annual fee per
                                                              licensed
                                                             category
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small Businesses Not Engaged in Manufacturing (Average
 gross receipts over last 3 completed fiscal years):
    $350,000 to $6.5 million............................          $2,300
    Less than $350,000..................................             500
Small Not-For-Profit Organizations (Annual Gross
 Receipts):
    $350,000 to $6.5 million............................           2,300
    Less than $350,000..................................             500
Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500
 employees or fewer:
    35 to 500 employees.................................           2,300
    Fewer than 35 employees.............................             500
Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly
 supported educational institutions) (Population):
    20,000 to 50,000....................................           2,300
    Fewer than 20,000...................................             500
Educational Institutions that are not State or Publicly
 Supported, and have 500 Employees or Fewer:
    35 to 500 employees.................................           2,300
    Fewer than 35 employees.............................             500
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    (d) The FY 2008 annual fees are comprised of a base annual fee and 
an additional charge (surcharge). The activities comprising the FY 2008 
surcharge are shown for convenience in paragraph (e) of this section. 
The FY 2008 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]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Category of materials licenses            Annual fees 1, 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   $3,007,000
         (High Enriched Uranium) [Program
         Code(s): 21130].
        (b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible  899,000
         Form Used for Fabrication of Power
         Reactor Fuel [Program Code(s): 21210].
    (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   341,000
         [Program Code(s): 21310, 21320].
        (b) Gas centrifuge enrichment            558,000
         demonstration facilities.
        (c) Others, including hot cell           248,000
         facilities.
    B. Licenses for receipt and storage of       N/A \11\
     spent fuel and reactor-related Greater
     than Class C (GTCC) waste at an
     independent spent fuel storage
     installation (ISFSI) [Program Code(s):
     23200].
    C. Licenses for possession and use of        1,600
     special nuclear material in sealed sources
     contained in devices used in industrial
     measuring systems, including x-ray
     fluorescence analyzers [Program Code(s):
     22140].
    D. All other special nuclear material        4,500
     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 1.A.(2) [Program Code(s):
     22110, 22111, 22120, 22131, 22136, 22150,
     22151, 22161, 22163, 22170, 23100, 23300,
     23310].
    E. Licenses or certificates for the          1,705,000
     operation of a uranium enrichment facility
     [Program Code(s): 21200].
2. Source material:
    A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of    589,000
     source material for refining uranium mill
     concentrates to uranium hexafluoride
     [Program Code(s): 11400].
    (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\ [Program      10,300
         Code(s): 11100].
        (b) Class II facilities \4\ [Program     10,300
         Code(s): 11500].
        (c) Other facilities \4\ [Program        N/A \5\
         Code(s): 11700].

[[Page 32409]]

 
    (3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of   N/A \5\
     byproduct material, as defined in Sec.
     11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from
     other persons for possession and disposal,
     except those licenses subject to the fees
     in Category 2.A.(2) or Category 2.A.(4)
     [Program Code(s): 11600].
    (4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of   10,300
     byproduct material, as defined in Sec.
     11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from
     other persons for possession and disposal
     incidental to the disposal of the uranium
     waste tailings generated by the licensee's
     milling operations, except those licenses
     subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2).
    (5) Licenses that authorize the possession   6,200
     of source material related to removal of
     contaminants (source material) from
     drinking water.
    B. Licenses that authorize only the          590
     possession, use and/or installation of
     source material for shielding [Program
     Code(s): 11210].
    C. All other source material licenses        10,200
     [Program Code(s): 11200, 11220, 11221,
     11230, 11300, 11800, 11810].
3. Byproduct material:
    A. Licenses of broad scope for possession    22,900
     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 [Program Code(s):
     03211, 03212, 03213].
    B. Other licenses for possession and use of  6,500
     byproduct material issued under part 30 of
     this chapter for processing or
     manufacturing of items containing
     byproduct material for commercial
     distribution [Program Code(s): 03214,
     03215, 22135, 22162].
    C. Licenses issued under Sec.  Sec.   32.72  9,200
     and/or 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 3.D. [Program
     Code(s): 02500, 02511, 02513].
    D. Licenses and approvals issued under Sec.  5,200
      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 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 [Program Code(s): 02512, 02514].
    E. Licenses for possession and use of        3,100
     byproduct material in sealed sources for
     irradiation of materials in which the
     source is not removed from its shield
     (self-shielded units) [Program Code(s):
     03510, 03520].
    F. Licenses for possession and use of less   6,100
     than 10,000 curies of byproduct material
     in sealed sources for irradiation of
     materials in which the source is exposed
     for irradiation purposes. This category
     also includes underwater irradiators for
     irradiation of materials in which the
     source is not exposed for irradiation
     purposes [Program Code(s): 03511].
    G. Licenses for possession and use of        24,400
     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
     in which the source is not exposed for
     irradiation purposes [Program Code(s):
     03521].
    H. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part    8,700
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material that require
     device review to persons exempt from the
     licensing requirements of part 30 of this
     chapter, except specific licenses
     authorizing redistribution of items that
     have been authorized for distribution to
     persons exempt from the licensing
     requirements of part 30 of this chapter
     [Program Code(s): 03255].
    I. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part   8,100
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material or
     quantities of byproduct material that do
     not require device evaluation to persons
     exempt from the licensing requirements of
     part 30 of this chapter, except for
     specific licenses authorizing
     redistribution of items that have been
     authorized for distribution to persons
     exempt from the licensing requirements of
     part 30 of this chapter [Program Code(s):
     03250, 03251, 03252, 03253, 03254, 03256].
    J. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part   1,900
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material that require
     sealed source and/or device review to
     persons generally licensed under part 31
     of this chapter, except specific licenses
     authorizing redistribution of items that
     have been authorized for distribution to
     persons generally licensed under part 31
     of this chapter [Program Code(s): 03240,
     03241, 03243].
    K. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part   1,500
     32 of this chapter to distribute items
     containing byproduct material or
     quantities of byproduct material that do
     not require sealed source and/or device
     review to persons generally licensed under
     part 31 of this chapter, except specific
     licenses authorizing redistribution of
     items that have been authorized for
     distribution to persons generally licensed
     under part 31 of this chapter [Program
     Code(s): 03242, 03244].
    L. Licenses of broad scope for possession    11,600
     and use of byproduct material issued under
     parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for
     research and development that do not
     authorize commercial distribution [Program
     Code(s): 01100, 01110, 01120, 03610,
     03611, 03612, 03613].
    M. Other licenses for possession and use of  4,200
     byproduct material issued under part 30 of
     this chapter for research and development
     that do not authorize commercial
     distribution [Program Code(s): 03620].
    N. Licenses that authorize services for      6,500
     other licensees, except: (1) Licenses that
     authorize only calibration and/or leak
     testing services are subject to the fees
     specified in fee Category 3.P.; and (2)
     Licenses that authorize waste disposal
     services are subject to the fees specified
     in fee categories 4.A., 4.B., and 4.C.
     [Program Code(s): 03219, 03225, 03226].
    O. Licenses for possession and use of        11,100
     byproduct material issued under part 34 of
     this chapter for industrial radiography
     operations. This category also includes
     the possession and use of source material
     for shielding authorized under part 40 of
     this chapter when authorized on the same
     license [Program Code(s): 03310, 03320].
    P. All other specific byproduct material     2,100
     licenses, except those in Categories 4.A.
     through 9.D. [Program Code(s): 02400,
     02410, 03120, 03121, 03122, 03123, 03124,
     03220, 03221, 03222, 03800, 03810, 22130].
    Q. Registration of devices generally         N/A \13\
     licensed under part 31 of this chapter.

[[Page 32410]]

 
    R. Possession of items or products
     containing radium-226 identified in 10 CFR
     31.12 which exceed the number of items or
     limits specified in that section: \14\
        1. Possession of quantities exceeding    1,700
         the number of items or limits in 10
         CFR 31.12(a)(4), or (5) but less than
         or equal to 10 times the number of
         items or limits specified [Program
         Code(s): 02700].
        2. Possession of quantities exceeding    2,100
         10 times the number of items or limits
         specified in 10 CFR 31.12(a)(4), or
         (5) [Program Code(s): 02710].
    S. Licenses for production of accelerator-   8,400
     produced radionuclides [Program Code(s):
     03210].
4. Waste disposal and processing:
    A. Licenses specifically authorizing the     N/A \5\
     receipt of waste byproduct material,
     source material, or special nuclear
     material from other persons for the
     purpose of contingency storage or
     commercial land disposal by the licensee;
     or licenses authorizing contingency
     storage of low-level radioactive waste at
     the site of nuclear power reactors; or
     licenses for receipt of waste from other
     persons for incineration or other
     treatment, packaging of resulting waste
     and residues, and transfer of packages to
     another person authorized to receive or
     dispose of waste material [Program
     Code(s): 03231, 03233, 03235, 03236,
     06100, 06101].
    B. Licenses specifically authorizing the     9,300
     receipt of waste byproduct material,
     source material, or special nuclear
     material from other persons for the
     purpose of packaging or repackaging the
     material. The licensee will dispose of the
     material by transfer to another person
     authorized to receive or dispose of the
     material [Program Code(s): 03234].
    C. Licenses specifically authorizing the     7,200
     receipt of prepackaged waste byproduct
     material, source material, or special
     nuclear material from other persons. The
     licensee will dispose of the material by
     transfer to another person authorized to
     receive or dispose of the material
     [Program Code(s): 03232].
5. Well logging:
    A. Licenses for possession and use of        3,400
     byproduct material, source material, and/
     or special nuclear material for well
     logging, well surveys, and tracer studies
     other than field flooding tracer studies
     [Program Code(s): 03110, 03111, 03112].
    B. Licenses for possession and use of        N/A \5\
     byproduct material for field flooding
     tracer studies [Program Code(s): 03113].
6. Nuclear laundries:
    A. Licenses for commercial collection and    20,600
     laundry of items contaminated with
     byproduct material, source material, or
     special nuclear material [Program Code(s):
     03218].
7. Medical licenses:
    A. Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40,   10,500
     and 70 of 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 [Program
     Code(s): 02300, 02310.
    B. Licenses of broad scope issued to         22,900
     medical institutions or two or more
     physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and
     70 of this chapter authorizing research
     and development, including human use of
     byproduct material except licenses for
     byproduct material, source material, or
     special nuclear material in sealed sources
     contained in teletherapy devices. This
     category also includes the possession and
     use of source material for shielding when
     authorized on the same license.\9\
     [Program Code(s): 02110].
    C. Other licenses issued under parts 30,     3,900
     35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human
     use of byproduct material, source
     material, and/or special nuclear material
     except licenses for byproduct material,
     source material, or special nuclear
     material in sealed sources contained in
     teletherapy devices. This category also
     includes the possession and use of source
     material for shielding when authorized on
     the same license.\9\ [Program Code(s):
     02120, 02121, 02200, 02201, 02210, 02220,
     02230, 02231, 02240, 22160].
8. Civil defense:
    A. Licenses for possession and use of        1,700
     byproduct material, source material, or
     special nuclear material for civil defense
     activities [Program Code(s): 03710].
9. Device, product, or sealed source safety
 evaluation:
    A. Registrations issued for the safety        14,700
     evaluation of devices or products
     containing byproduct material, source
     material, or special nuclear material,
     except reactor fuel devices, for
     commercial distribution.
    B. Registrations issued for the safety       14,700
     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.
    C. Registrations issued for the safety       2,000
     evaluation of sealed sources containing
     byproduct material, source material, or
     special nuclear material, except reactor
     fuel, for commercial distribution.
    D. Registrations issued for the safety       700
     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.
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     N/A \6\
         plutonium air packages.
        2. Other Casks.........................  N/A \6\
    B. Quality assurance program approvals
     issued under part 71 of this chapter.
        1. Users and Fabricators...............  N/A \6\
        2. Users...............................  N/A \6\
    C. Evaluation of security plans, route       N/A \6\
     approvals, route surveys, and
     transportation security devices (including
     immobilization devices).
11. Standardized spent fuel facilities.........  N/A \6\
12. Special Projects...........................  N/A \6\
13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of    N/A \6\
 Compliance.
    B. General licenses for storage of spent     N/A \12\
     fuel under 10 CFR 72.210
14. Decommissioning/Reclamation:

[[Page 32411]]

 
    A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear     N/A \7\
     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  N/A \7\
     associated with unlicensed sites, whether
     or not the sites have been previously
     licensed.
15. Import and Export licenses.................  N/A \8\
16. Reciprocity................................  N/A \8\
17. Master materials licenses of broad scope     225,000
 issued to Government agencies.
18. Department of Energy:
    A. Certificates of Compliance..............   719,000 \10\
    B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control   398,000
     Act (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 FY. The annual fee is waived
  for those materials licenses and holders of certificates,
  registrations, and approvals who either filed for termination of their
  licenses or approvals or filed for possession only/storage licenses
  before October 1, 2007, and permanently ceased licensed activities
  entirely before this date. Annual fees for licensees who filed for
  termination of a license, downgrade of a license, or for a possession
  only license during the FY and for new licenses issued during the FY
  will be prorated in accordance with the provisions of 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 1.A.(1) are not subject to the annual fees
  for Categories 1.C. and 1.D. 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 FY, 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 that also hold nuclear medicine
  licenses under Categories 7.B. or 7.C.
\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.
\14\ Persons who possess radium sources that are used for operational
  purposes in another fee category are not also subject to the fees in
  this category. (This exception does not apply if the radium sources
  are possessed for storage only.)

    (e) The surcharge allocated to annual fees includes the budgeted 
resources for the activities listed in paragraph (e)(1) of this 
section, plus the total budgeted resources for the activities included 
in paragraphs (e)(2) and (e)(3) of this section as reduced by the 
appropriations NRC receives for these types of activities. If the NRC's 
appropriations for these types of activities are greater than the 
budgeted resources for the activities included in paragraphs (e)(2) and 
(e)(3) of this section for a given FY, a negative surcharge (or annual 
fee reduction) will be allocated to annual fees. The activities 
comprising the FY 2008 surcharge are as follows:
* * * * *

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of May, 2008.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
J.E. Dyer,
Chief Financial Officer.

    Note: THIS APPENDIX WILL NOT APPEAR IN THE CODE OF FEDERAL 
REGULATIONS.

Appendix A to This Final Rule--Regulatory Flexibility Analysis for the 
Final 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.
    The NRC is required each year, under OBRA-90, as amended, to 
recover approximately 90 percent of its budget authority (less 
amounts appropriated from the NWF and for other activities 
specifically removed from the fee base), through fees to NRC 
licensees and applicants. In total, the NRC is required to bill 
approximately $760.7 million in fees for FY 2008.
    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

[[Page 32412]]

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 the NRC in identifying and 
determining the fees to be assessed and collected in any given FY.
    The Commission is rebaselining its part 171 annual fees in FY 
2008. Rebaselining fees results in increased annual fees compared to 
FY 2007 for the power reactors and non-power reactors, and decreased 
annual fees for four classes of licenses (spent fuel storage/reactor 
decommissioning, fuel facilities, transportation, and materials 
users). Within the uranium recovery fee class, annual fees for the 
all the non DOE licensees decrease, while annual fee for the DOE 
increases slightly. There is no annual fee for the rare earth fee 
class because this NRC fee class will no longer exist in FY 2008. As 
discussed in Section III.B.2., ``Agreement State Activities'', of 
this document, the only rare earth facility license transferred to 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania when it became an Agreement State.
    The Congressional Review Act of 1996 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 Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 
requires that an agency prepare a guide to assist small entities in 
complying with each rule for which a final RFA is prepared. This 
analysis and the small entity compliance guide (Attachment 1) have 
been prepared for the FY 2008 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 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 
fees on materials licensees. In FY 2007, about 32 percent of these 
licensees (approximately 1,400 licensees) qualified as small 
entities.
    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 
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 licenses, approvals, 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 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.
    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 of the 25 percent 
increase, the maximum small entity annual fee increased from $1,800 
to $2,300 in FY 2000. Although the maximum annual fee for small 
entities increased from $1,800 to $2,300, the total fee for many 
small entities was reduced because they no longer paid part 170 fees 
for services. The costs not recovered from small entities were 
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 fewer than 35 
employees. The NRC also increased the

[[Page 32413]]

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 2001. The NRC performed a similar review, and 
reached the same conclusion, in FY 2005.
    The NRC re-examined its small entity fees for the FY 2007 fee 
rulemaking, 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 
entire 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 are offset by the 10 percent fee relief 
provided to NRC by the Congress. Given the reduction in annual fees 
from FY 2000 to FY 2007, on average, for those categories of 
materials licensees that contain a number of small entities, the NRC 
determined that the current small entity fees of $500 and $2,300 
continued to meet the objective of providing relief to many small 
entities while recovering from them some of the costs that benefit 
them.
    As part of the small entity review in FY 2007, the NRC also 
considered whether it should establish reduced fees for small 
entities under part 170. The NRC received one comment requesting 
that such small entity fees be considered for certain export 
licenses, particularly in light of the recent increases to part 170 
fees for these licenses. Because the NRC's part 170 fees are not 
assessed to a licensee or applicant on a regular basis (i.e., they 
are only assessed when a licensee or applicant requests a specific 
service from the NRC), the NRC does not believe that the impact of 
its part 170 fees warrants a fee reduction for small entities under 
part 170, in addition to the part 171 small entity fee reduction. 
Regarding export licenses, in particular, the NRC notes that 
interested parties can submit a single application for a broad 
scope, multi-year license that permits exports to multiple 
countries. Because the NRC's fees are charged per application, this 
streamlining process minimizes the fees for export applicants. 
Because a single NRC fee can cover numerous exports, and because 
there are a limited number of entities who apply for these licenses, 
the NRC does not anticipate that the part 170 export fees will have 
a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.
    Therefore, the NRC retained the $2,300 small entity annual fee 
and the $500 lower tier small entity annual fee for FY 2007, and is 
not changing these fees in FY 2008. The NRC plans to re-examine the 
small entity fees again in FY 2009.

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 fewer than 20,000, small manufacturing entities 
that have fewer than 35 employees, and educational institutions that 
are not State or publicly supported and have fewer 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, as amended, and the RFA. Therefore, the 
analysis and conclusions previously established remain valid for FY 
2008.

ATTACHMENT 1 TO APPENDIX A--U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Small 
Entity Compliance Guide; Fiscal Year 2008

Contents

Introduction
NRC Definition of Small Entity
NRC Small Entity Fees
Instructions for Completing NRC Form 526

Introduction

    The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act requires 
all Federal agencies to prepare a written guide for which the agency 
Prepares a final regulatory flexibility analysis. The NRC has 
prepared such an analysis. Therefore, in compliance with the law, 
this guide has been prepared to assist NRC materials licensees in 
complying with the FY 2008 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 2008 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 
``Business with NRC,'' then ``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 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 $6.5 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 
$6.5 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 fewer 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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

[[Page 32414]]

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, including 
a foreign 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 Businesses Not Engaged in Manufacturing (Average
 gross receipts over last 3 completed fiscal years):
    $350,000 to $6.5 million...............................       $2,300
    Less than $350,000.....................................          500
Small Not-For-Profit Organizations (Annual Gross Receipts):
    $350,000 to $6.5 million...............................        2,300
    Less than $350,000.....................................          500
Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500
 employees or fewer:
    35 to 500 employees....................................        2,300
    Fewer than 35 employees................................          500
Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly
 supported educational institutions) (Population):
    20,000 to 50,000.......................................        2,300
    Fewer than 20,000......................................          500
Educational Institutions that are not State or Publicly
 Supported, and have 500 Employees or Fewer:
    35 to 500 employees....................................        2,300
    Fewer than 35 employees................................          500
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Instructions for Completing NRC Small Entity Form 526

    1. Complete all items on NRC Form 526 as follows: (Note: 
Incomplete or improperly completed forms will be returned as 
unacceptable)
    (a) Enter the license number and invoice number exactly as they 
appear on the annual fee invoice.
    (b) Enter the North American Industry Classification System 
(NAICS).
    (c) Enter the licensee's name and address exactly as they appear 
on the invoice. Annotate name and/or address changes for billing 
purposes on the payment copy of the invoice--include contact's name, 
telephone number, e-mail address, and company Web site address. 
Correcting the name and/or address on NRC Form 526 or on the invoice 
does not constitute a request to amend the license.
    (d) Check the appropriate size standard under which the licensee 
qualifies as a small entity. Check one box only. Note the following:
    (i) A licensee who is a subsidiary of a large entity, including 
foreign entities, does not qualify as a small entity. The 
calculation of a firm's size includes the employees or receipts of 
all affiliates. Affiliation with another concern is based on the 
power to control, whether exercised or not. Such factors as common 
ownership, common management and identity of interest (often found 
in members of the same family), among others, are indications of 
affiliation. The affiliated business concerns need not be in the 
same line of business (67 CFR part 59).
    (ii) Gross annual receipts, as used in the size standards, 
include all revenue received or accrued by your company from all 
sources, regardless of the form of the revenue and not solely 
receipts from licensed activities.
    (iii) NRC's size standards on small entity are based on the 
Small Business Administration's regulations (13 CFR part 121).
    (iv) The size standards apply to the licensee, not to the 
individual authorized users who may be listed in the license.
    2. If the invoice states the ``Amount Billed Represents 50% 
Proration,'' the amount due is not the prorated amount shown on the 
invoice but rather one-half of the maximum small entity annual fee 
shown on NRC Form 526 for the size standard under which the licensee 
qualifies (either $1,150 or $250) for each category billed.
    3. If the invoice amount is less than the reduced small entity 
annual fee shown on this form, pay the amount on the invoice; there 
is no further reduction. In this case, do not file NRC Form 526. 
However, if the invoice amount is greater than the reduced small 
entity annual fee, file NRC Form 526 and pay the amount applicable 
to the size standard you checked on the form.
    4. The completed NRC Form 526 must be submitted with the 
required annual fee payment and the ``Payment Copy'' of the invoice 
to the address shown on the invoice.
    5. 10 CFR 171.16(c)(3) states licensees shall submit a new 
certification with its annual fee payment each year. Failure to 
submit NRC Form 526 at the time the annual fee is paid will require 
the licensee to pay the full amount of the invoice.
    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.''
    Licensees must file a new small entity form (NRC Form 526) with 
the NRC each fiscal 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 NRC 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. E8-12086 Filed 6-5-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P