Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for Fiscal Year 2017; Corrections, 33000-33002 [2017-14717]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0081. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. 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 https://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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov.
     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: Michele.Kaplan@nrc.gov.

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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Annual fees 1
             Category of materials licenses                     2 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Special nuclear material:
    A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of U-235 or
     plutonium for fuel fabrication activities.
        (a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material (High          $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]................
 
                              * * * * * * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P