[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 137 (Wednesday, July 19, 2017)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 33000-33002]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-14717]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 170 and 171
[NRC-2016-0081]
RIN 3150-AJ73
Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for Fiscal Year 2017;
Corrections
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Final rule; correction.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a final
rule amending regulations that will become effective August 29, 2017.
The fiscal year (FY) 2017 final fee rule, published June 30, 2017,
amends the licensing, inspection, special project, and annual fees
charged to NRC applicants and licensees. This document corrects the
annual fees for fuel facility licensees.
DATES: Effective Date: These corrections are effective on August 29,
2017.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0081 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may
obtain publicly-available information related to this action by any of
the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0081. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and
then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS,
please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected].
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michele Kaplan, Office of the Chief
Financial Officer, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-5256, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NRC published a final rule amending its
regulations in parts 170 and 171 of title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations that will become effective August 29, 2017. The FY 2017
final fee rule, published June 30, 2017 (82 FR 30682), amends the
licensing, inspection, special project, and annual fees charged to NRC
applicants and licensees.
The FY 2017 final fee rule contained inadvertent errors in the
calculation of the fuel facilities fee class annual fees. Although the
fuel facilities total annual fee recovery amount was correctly
calculated at $28.4 million, the NRC staff incorrectly calculated the
prorated unpaid portion of Lead Cascade's annual fee to be spread among
the six fee categories within the fee class for the remaining
licensees. When prorating Lead Cascade's expected annual fee, the NRC
staff mistakenly used the 1.E. fee category, which caused the
calculated unpaid prorated amount to be higher than the actual prorated
amount by $1.5 million. To correct this situation, the NRC staff
lowered the amount to be recovered from the remaining licensees by $1.5
million. This rule, therefore, corrects fee categories 1.A.(1)(a),
1.A.(1)(b), 1.A.(2)(b), 1.A.(2)(c), 1.E., and 2.A.(1) in the table in
Sec. 171.16(d) and Table VIII in the portion of the final rule
preamble that includes these fees.
Rulemaking Procedure
Under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553(b)), an agency
may waive the normal notice and comment requirements if it finds, for
good cause, that they are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to
the public interest. As authorized by 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B) and (d)(3),
the NRC finds good cause to waive notice and opportunity for comment on
these amendments and to make this final rule effective on August 29,
2017, the effective date of the FY 2017 final rule. These amendments
are necessary to correct an error in the NRC's fee calculations and do
not involve changes to NRC policy or the exercise of agency discretion.
Second, these amendments will have no adverse effect on any person or
entity regulated by the NRC because these amendments will lower annual
fees (if anything, these amendments will have a beneficial effect on
the affected fee classes). For these reasons, an opportunity for
comment would not be meaningful. These amendments need to be effective
on August 29, 2017, the effective date of the FY 2017 final rule, in
order to avoid incorrect payments by stakeholders in the affected fee
classes and the consequent administrative burden on the NRC if refunds
must be processed.
Correction of Errors
In FR Doc. 2017-13520, appearing on page 30682 in the Federal
Register of Friday, June 30, 2017, the following corrections are made:
[[Page 33001]]
Correction to the Preamble
1. Beginning on page 30686, in section a., Fuel Facilities, Table
VIII is corrected to read as follows:
Table VIII--Annual Fees for Fuel Facilities
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FY 2016 final FY 2017 final Percentage
Facility type (fee category) annual fee annual fee change
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High-Enriched Uranium Fuel (1.A.(1)(a))......................... $7,867,000 $7,255,000 -7.8
Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel (1.A.(1)(b)).......................... 2,736,000 2,629,000 -3.9
Limited Operations (1.A(2)(a)).................................. 0.0 0.0 0.0
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration (1.A.(2)(b))............ 1,539,000 1,366,000 -11.2
Hot Cell (and others) (1.A.(2)(c)).............................. 770,000 710,000 -7.8
Uranium Enrichment (1.E.)....................................... 3,762,000 3,470,000 -7.8
UF6 Conversion and Deconversion (2.A.(1))....................... 1,625,000 1,498,000 -7.8
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Correction to the Regulatory Text
Sec. 171.16 [Corrected]
0
2. On page 30705, in Sec. 171.16, paragraph (d), in the table, correct
fee categories 1.A.(1), 1.A.(2)(b) and (c), 1.E., and 2.A.(1) to read
as follows:
Sec. 171.16 Annual fees: Materials licensees, holders of certificates
of compliance, holders of sealed source and device registrations,
holders of quality assurance program approvals, and government agencies
licensed by the NRC.
* * * * *
(d) * * *
Schedule of Materials Annual Fees and Fees for Government Agencies
Licensed by NRC
[See footnotes at end of table]
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Annual fees 1
Category of materials licenses 2 3
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1. Special nuclear material:
A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of U-235 or
plutonium for fuel fabrication activities.
(a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material (High $7,255,000
Enriched Uranium) [Program Code(s): 21213].....
(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Form 2,629,000
Used for Fabrication of Power Reactor Fuel
[Program Code(s): 21210].......................
(2) * * *
(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration 1,366,000
facilities [Program Code(s): 21205]............
(c) Others, including hot cell facilities 710,000
[Program Code(s): 21130, 21133]................
* * * * * * *
\11\ N/A
E. Licenses or certificates for the operation of a 3,470,000
uranium enrichment facility [Program Code(s):
21200].............................................
* * * * * * *
6,400
2. Source material:
A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of source 1,498,000
material for refining uranium mill concentrates to
uranium hexafluoride or for deconverting uranium
hexafluoride in the production of uranium oxides
for disposal. [Program Code: 11400]................
* * * * * * *
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\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, 2015, 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.
\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.
[[Page 33002]]
* * * * *
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of July 2017.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cindy Bladey,
Chief, Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch, Division of
Administrative Services, Office of Administration.
[FR Doc. 2017-14717 Filed 7-18-17; 8:45 am]
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