Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2008, 32386-32414 [E8-12086]

Download as PDF 32386 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov. 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: NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Parts 170 and 171 RIN: 3150–AI28 [NRC–2008–0080] Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2008 Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Final rule. dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 AGENCY: 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 https://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 Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. 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 https://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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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, PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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. E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 nonfee 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. PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 32387 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 https:// 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32388 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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. dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 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 reexamined 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 Renu.Suri@nrc.gov; 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 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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 https://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.) E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 32389 TABLE 1.—BUDGET AND FEE RECOVERY AMOUNTS FOR FY 2008 [Dollars in millions] $926.1 ¥60.4 Balance ...................................................................................................................................................................................... Fee Recovery Rate for FY 2008 ...................................................................................................................................................... $865.7 × 90.0% Total Amount to be Recovered for FY 2008 ........................................................................................................................................... Less Carryover from FY 2007 .......................................................................................................................................................... Less Part 171 Billing Adjustments Unpaid FY 2008 Invoices (estimated) ....................................................................................................................................... Less Payments Received in FY 2008 for Prior Year Invoices (estimated) .............................................................................. $779.1 ¥13.3 Subtotal ..................................................................................................................................................................................... ¥18.4 Amount to be Recovered Through Parts 170 and 171 Fees .................................................................................................................. Less Estimated Part 170 Fees ......................................................................................................................................................... $760.7 ¥291.8 Part 171 Fee Collections Required ......................................................................................................................................................... dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Total Budget Authority ............................................................................................................................................................................. Less non-fee items ........................................................................................................................................................................... $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 preapplication 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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, PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 2.7 ¥7.8 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 fees.resource@nrc.gov. In addition to publication in the Federal Register, the final rule is available on the Internet at https:// 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32390 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 §§ 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 ....................................................................................................................................... Mission Indirect Salaries & Benefits, and Contract Activity ................................................................................................................ Agency Management and Support, and IG ......................................................................................................................................... $292.6M 120.7M 266.2M Subtotal ......................................................................................................................................................................................... Less Offsetting Receipts ...................................................................................................................................................................... $679.5M ¥0.0M Net Recoverable Budget Included in Hourly Rate ....................................................................................................................... Mission Direct FTEs ............................................................................................................................................................................ Professional Hourly Rate (Net Recoverable Budget Included in Hourly Rate divided by Mission Direct FTE times 1,371 Annual Direct Hours Per FTE) ..................................................................................................................................................................... $679.5M 2,079 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. dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 2. ‘‘Flat’’ Application Fee Changes As noted above, the NRC is adjusting the current flat application fees in §§ 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 § 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 § 170.31. Applications filed on or after the effective date of the FY 2008 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 $238 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 § 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 § 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. 32391 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 budgeted costs Category of costs 1. Activities not attributable to an existing NRC licensee or class of licensee: a. International activities ................................................................................................................................................................... b. Agreement State oversight ........................................................................................................................................................... c. Scholarships and Fellowships ...................................................................................................................................................... 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 ................................................................................................................... b. Costs not recovered from small entities under 10 CFR 171.16(c) .............................................................................................. 3. Activities supporting NRC operating licensees and others: a. Regulatory support to Agreement States ..................................................................................................................................... b. Generic decommissioning/reclamation (not related to the power reactor and spent fuel storage fee classes) ......................... c. In-situ Leach Uranium Extraction rulemaking and unregistered general licensees .................................................................... $12.9 8.8 15.0 10.9 3.8 9.9 13.5 2.9 77.7 ¥86.6 Fee Relief to be Allocated to All Licensees’ Annual Fees ....................................................................................................... dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Total surcharge costs ................................................................................................................................................................ Less 10 percent of NRC’s FY 2008 total budget (less non-fee items) ................................................................................................... ¥8.9 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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) E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32392 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 $M Operating Power Reactors ...................................................................... Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning ....................................... Test and Research Reactors ................................................................... Fuel Facilities ........................................................................................... Materials Users ........................................................................................ Transportation .......................................................................................... Rare Earth Facilities ................................................................................ Uranium Recovery ................................................................................... 74 .................... .................... 8 18 .................... .................... .................... 2.1 .................... .................... 0.2 0.5 .................... .................... .................... 89.6 2.9 0.1 4.1 2.5 0.4 0.0 0.3 ¥8.0 ¥0.3 0.0 ¥0.4 ¥0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 ¥5.9 ¥0.3 0.0 ¥0.1 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total Surcharge ................................................................................ dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Percent 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 onehalf 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 § § 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 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 Percent $M 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 32393 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 annual fee Class/category of licenses Operating Power Reactors (including Spent FuelStorage/Reactor Decommissioning annual fee) ........................ Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning ...................................................................................................... Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors) .............................................................................................. High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility ....................................................................................................................... Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility ........................................................................................................................ UF6 Conversion Facility ........................................................................................................................................... Conventional Mills .................................................................................................................................................... Typical Materials Users: Radiographers .................................................................................................................................................. Well Loggers ..................................................................................................................................................... Gauge Users (Category 3P) ............................................................................................................................. Broad Scope Medical ....................................................................................................................................... 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 https://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 FY 2008 annual fee $4,043,000 159,000 76,300 4,096,000 1,237,000 811,000 18,700 $4,167,000 135,000 76,500 3,007,000 899,000 589,000 10,300 14,100 4,400 2,700 29,000 11,100 3,400 2,100 22,900 (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 § 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 final dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final Total budgeted resources ................................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts .................................................................................................................................... $32.2 ¥13.6 $31.5 ¥17.2 Net part 171 resources ............................................................................................................................................. Allocated generic transportation ...................................................................................................................................... Allocated surcharge ......................................................................................................................................................... 18.6 +0.5 ¥0.2 14.3 +0.5 ¥0.1 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32394 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations TABLE VI.—ANNUAL FEE SUMMARY CALCULATIONS FOR FUEL FACILITIES—Continued [Dollars in millions] FY 2007 final Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final 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 Facility type (fee category) Effort factors (percent of total) Number of facilities dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Safety High Enriched Uranium Fuel ....................................................................................................... Uranium Enrichment .................................................................................................................... Low Enriched Uranium Fuel ........................................................................................................ UF6 Conversion ........................................................................................................................... Limited Operations ....................................................................................................................... Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration ................................................................................. Hot Cell ........................................................................................................................................ The budgeted resources for safety activities ($8,045,570) are allocated to VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 each fee category based on its percent of the total regulatory effort for safety PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 92 (35.8) 70 (27.2) 66 (25.7) 12 (4.7) 8 (3.1) 3 (1.2) 6 (2.3) Safeguards 102 (53.7) 40 (21.1) 21 (11.1) 7 (3.7) 3 (1.6) 15 (7.9) 2 (1.1) activities. For example, if the total effort factor for safety activities for all fuel E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 32395 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 Facility type (fee category) FY 2008 annual fee High Enriched Uranium Fuel ............................................................................................................................................................... Uranium Enrichment ............................................................................................................................................................................ Low Enriched Uranium ........................................................................................................................................................................ UF6 Conversion ................................................................................................................................................................................... Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration ......................................................................................................................................... Limited Operations Facility .................................................................................................................................................................. Hot Cell (and others) ........................................................................................................................................................................... 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 § 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 $3,007,000 1,705,000 899,000 589,000 558,000 341,000 248,000 2.A.(2)(a), 2.A.(2)(b), 2.A.(3), 2.A.(4), 2.A.(5) and 18.B., under § 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 final Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final $1.32 ¥0.61 $2.56 ¥2.02 Net part 171 resources ............................................................................................................................................. Allocated generic transportation ...................................................................................................................................... Allocated surcharge ......................................................................................................................................................... 0.71 +N/A ¥0.02 0.54 +N/A ¥0.03 Billing adjustments (including carryover) ......................................................................................................................... Total required annual fee recovery .......................................................................................................................... dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Total budgeted resources ................................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts .................................................................................................................................... +0.00 0.69 ¥0.06 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 $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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32396 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 .................................................................................................................................................. 40 percent of generic/other uranium recovery budgeted costs ................................................................................................... 40 percent of uranium recovery surcharge .................................................................................................................................. $359,471 50,044 ¥11,585 Total Annual Fee Amount for DOE (rounded) ...................................................................................................................... Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium Recovery Licenses: 60 percent of generic/other uranium recovery budgeted costs less the amounts specifically budgeted for Title I activities ..... 60 percent of uranium recovery surcharge .................................................................................................................................. 75,066 ¥17,377 Total Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium Recovery Licenses ....................................................................................... 57,688 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 398,000 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 licensees Fee category dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Class I (conventional mills) .............................................................................................. Class II (solution mining) ................................................................................................. 11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites ........................................................ Uranium water treatment ................................................................................................. The annual fee per licensee is calculated by dividing the total allocated budgeted resources for the fee category by the number of licensees in VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 Effort factor per licensee 1 3 1 1 75 75 75 45 Value Percent total 75 225 75 45 uranium recovery licensees results in the following annual fees for FY 2008: E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 18 54 18 11 32397 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations TABLE XII.—ANNUAL FEES FOR URANIUM RECOVERY LICENSEES (OTHER THAN DOE) FY 2008 annual fee Facility type Class I (conventional mills) .................................................................................................................................................................. Class II (solution mining) ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11e.(2) disposal ................................................................................................................................................................................... 11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites ............................................................................................................................ Uranium water treatment ..................................................................................................................................................................... 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 $10,300 10,300 N/A 10,300 6,200 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 ........................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts ............................................................................................................................ $588.6 ¥180.7 $698.8 ¥258.1 Net part 171 resources ..................................................................................................................................... Allocated generic transportation .............................................................................................................................. Allocated surcharge ................................................................................................................................................. Billing adjustments (including carryover) ................................................................................................................. 407.9 +1.0 ¥6.0 +1.1 440.7 +1.0 ¥5.9 ¥16.5 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 § 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 final Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Total budgeted resources ................................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts .................................................................................................................................... $23.9 ¥4.2 $22.4 ¥5.3 Net part 171 resources ............................................................................................................................................. Allocated generic transportation ...................................................................................................................................... Allocated surcharge ......................................................................................................................................................... Billing adjustments (including carryover) ......................................................................................................................... 19.7 +0.3 ¥0.4 +0.0 17.1 +0.2 ¥0.3 ¥0.5 Total required annual fee recovery .......................................................................................................................... 19.6 16.6 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32398 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 (Nonpower 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 final Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final Total budgeted resources ................................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts .................................................................................................................................... $0.85 ¥0.55 $0.99 ¥0.66 Net part 171 resources ............................................................................................................................................. Allocated generic transportation ...................................................................................................................................... Allocated surcharge ......................................................................................................................................................... Billing adjustments (including carryover) ......................................................................................................................... 0.30 +0.01 ¥0.01 +0.00 0.33 +0.01 ¥0.01 ¥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 § 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 final Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final $25.8 ¥1.2 $22.8 ¥2.0 Net part 171 resources ............................................................................................................................................. Allocated generic transportation ...................................................................................................................................... Allocated surcharge ......................................................................................................................................................... Billing adjustments (including carryover) ......................................................................................................................... 24.6 +0.9 +0.3 +0.0 20.8 +0.9 +0.3 ¥0.5 Total required annual fee recovery .......................................................................................................................... dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Total budgeted resources ................................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts .................................................................................................................................... 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32399 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 § 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 final Summary fee calculations FY 2008 final $5.0 ¥1.2 $5.7 ¥2.3 Net part 171 resources ............................................................................................................................................. dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Total budgeted resources ................................................................................................................................................ Less estimated part 170 receipts .................................................................................................................................... 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 annual fees for license fee classes. NRC will continue to assess a separate annual fee under § 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 § 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 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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)×3), or 0.4 CoCs. E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32400 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations TABLE XVIII.—DISTRIBUTION OF GENERIC TRANSPORTATION RESOURCES, FY 2008 [Dollars in millions] Number CoCs benefiting fee class (or DOE) License fee class/DOE (Percentage of total CoCs percent) Allocated generic transportation resources 128.0 31.0 37.0 9.0 0.4 18.0 32.6 100.0 24.2 28.9 7.0 0.3 14.1 25.4 $3.41 0.83 0.99 0.24 0.01 0.48 0.87 Total ............................................................................................................................................. DOE ............................................................................................................................................. Operating Power Reactors .......................................................................................................... Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning .......................................................................... Test and Research Reactors ....................................................................................................... Fuel Facilities ............................................................................................................................... Materials Users ............................................................................................................................ 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. 4. Administrative Amendments dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 The NRC will continue to assess DOE an annual fee based on the part 71 CoCs it holds, and not allocate these DOErelated 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. IV. Voluntary Consensus Standards The NRC is adding program codes next to the materials users fee categories in § 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 § 171.16. The NRC is modifying the second sentence of footnote 1 in § 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 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. VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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. PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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, E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 lowlevel 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 32401 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. I 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 1. The authority citation for part 170 continues to read as follows: I 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). 2. Section 170.20 is revised to read as follows: I E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32402 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations § 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 §§ 170.21 and 170.31 will be calculated using the professional staff-hour rate of $238 per hour. I 3. In § 170.21, in the table, fee category K is revised to read as follows: § 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] Fees 1, 2 Facility categories and type of fees * * * * * * 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 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 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 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 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 .......................................................................................................................................... * $15,500 9,100 3,800 2,400 720 1 Fees will not be charged for orders related to civil penalties or other civil sanctions issued by the Commission under § 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 § 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 § 170.20. * * * * * * * 4 Imports only of major components for end-use at NRC–licensed reactors are now authorized under NRC general import license. 4. In § 170.31, the table is revised to read as follows: I § 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] dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 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 (High Enriched Uranium) [Program Code(s): 21130] ................................................ (b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible 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 [Program Code(s): 21310, 21320] ................................................................................. (b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration facilities ........................................................................................................... (c) Others, including hot cell facilities ...................................................................................................................................... VerDate Aug<31>2005 16:20 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Full Cost. Full Cost. Full Cost. Full Cost. Full Cost. 32403 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fee 2, 3 B. Licenses for receipt and storage of 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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 § 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, 22111, 22120, 22131, 22136, 22150, 22151, 22161, 22163, 22170, 23100, 23300, 23310]. E. Licenses or certificates for construction and operation of a uranium enrichment facility [Program Code(s): 21200] .............. 2. Source material: A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of 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 Code(s): 11100] ....................................................................................................................... (b) Class II facilities [Program Code(s): 11500] ...................................................................................................................... (c) Other facilities [Program Code(s): 11700] ......................................................................................................................... (3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct material, as defined in § 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 byproduct material, as defined in § 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 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] .................................................................................................................................... C. All other source material licenses. Application [Program Code(s): 11200, 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, 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, 03215, 22135, 22162] ................................................................................................ C. Licenses issued under §§ 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 § 170.11(a)(4). These licenses are covered by fee Category 3.D. Application [Program Code(s): 02500, 02511, 02513] ............................................................................................................ D. Licenses and approvals issued under §§ 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 §§ 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter to nonprofit educational institutions whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 170.11(a)(4). Application [Program Code(s): 02512, 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, 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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] .................................................................................................................................... VerDate Aug<31>2005 16:13 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00019 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Full Cost. $1,100. 2,200. Full Cost. Full Cost. Full Full Full Full Cost. Cost. Cost. Cost. Full Cost. Full Cost. 260. 9,400. 11,200. 4,200. 7,400. 4,100. 2,700. 5,600. 13,300. 9,700. 32404 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 4. dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 5. 6. 7. Fee 2, 3 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, 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, 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, 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, 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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, 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, 03320] ........................................................................................................................ P. All other specific byproduct material licenses, except those in Categories 4.A. through 9.D. Application [Program Code(s): 02400, 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 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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] .................................................................................................................................... S. Licenses for production of accelerator-produced radionuclides. Application [Program Code(s): 03210] .................................................................................................................................... Waste disposal and processing: A. Licenses specifically authorizing the 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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, 03111, 03112] ............................................................................................................ B. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material for field flooding tracer studies. Licensing [Program Code(s): 03113] ....................................................................................................................................... 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] .................................................................................................................................... Medical licenses: VerDate Aug<31>2005 16:13 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 9,700. 1,700. 1,000. 9,400. 3,300. 6,100. 4,500. 1,300. 270. 550. 1,300. 7,400. Full Cost. 2,900. 4,300. 1,600. Full Cost. 19,000. 32405 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fee 2, 3 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, 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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, 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] .................................................................................................................................... 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 ........................................................................................................................................................ 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 ........................................................................................................................................................ C. Safety evaluation of sealed sources containing byproduct material, source material, or special nuclear material, except reactor fuel, for commercial distribution. Application—each source ........................................................................................................................................................ 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 ........................................................................................................................................................ 10. Transportation of radioactive material: A. Evaluation of casks, packages, and shipping containers. 1. Spent Fuel, High-Level Waste, and plutonium air packages ..................................................................................................... 2. Other Casks ................................................................................................................................................................................ B. Quality assurance program approvals issued under part 71 of this chapter. 1. Users and Fabricators. Application ............................................................................................................................................................................... Inspections ............................................................................................................................................................................... 2. Users. Application ............................................................................................................................................................................... Inspections ............................................................................................................................................................................... C. Evaluation of security plans, route approvals, route surveys, and transportation security devices (including immobilization devices). 11. Review of standardized spent fuel facilities .................................................................................................................................... 12. Special projects: Including approvals, preapplication/licensing activities, and inspections ....................................................................................... 13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Compliance ..................................................................................................................... B. Inspections related to storage of spent fuel under § 72.210 of this chapter .................................................................................... 14. A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear 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 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; 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; 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; 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. VerDate Aug<31>2005 16:13 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 10,400. 7,400. 2,300. 550. 19,500. 19,500. 2,700. 910. Full Cost. Full Cost. 4,400. Full Cost. 4,400. Full Cost. Full Cost. Full Cost. Full Full Full Full Cost. Cost. Cost. Cost. Full Cost. 15,500. 9,100. 3,800. 32406 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS FEES—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] Category of materials licenses and type of fees 1 Fee 2, 3 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Application—new license, or amendment; 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 .................................................................................................................................................................... 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; or license exemption request .............................................................................. G. Application for export of Category 1 materials requiring Executive Branch review, Commission review, and/or governmentto-government consent. Application—new license, or amendment; 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; or license exemption request .............................................................................. I. Application for export of Category 1 material requiring government-to-government consent Application—new license, or amendment; 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; 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; or license exemption request .............................................................................. L. Application for the export of Category 2 materials. Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request .............................................................................. Category 1 Imports: M. Application for the import of Category 1 material requiring Commission review. Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request .............................................................................. N. Application for the import of Category 1 material. Application—new license, or amendment; or license exemption request .............................................................................. Category 2 Imports: O. Application for the import of Category 2 material. Application—new license, or amendment; 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; or license exemption request .............................................................................. Q. Application for the import of Category 1 material with agent and multiple licensees. Application—new license, or amendment; 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 .................................................................................................................................................................... 16. Reciprocity: Agreement State licensees who conduct activities under the reciprocity provisions of 10 CFR 150.20. Application ............................................................................................................................................................................... 17. Master materials licenses of broad scope issued to Government agencies: Application ............................................................................................................................................................................... 18. Department of Energy A. Certificates of Compliance. Evaluation 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 Act (UMTRCA) activities ............................................................................................ 2,400. 720. 15,500. 9,100. 5,700. 4,800. 15,500. 9,100. 4,300. 4,500. 3,800. 3,300. 5,200. 4,300. 720. 1,400. 22,000. Full Cost. Full Cost. 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 § 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. VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 § 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 § 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 § 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 § 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 5. The authority citation for part 171 continues to read as follows: I 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). 6. In § 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: I § 171.15 Annual fees: Reactor licenses and independent spent fuel storage licenses. dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 * * * * * (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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 (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 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 (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 § 171.11(a), are as follows: E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32408 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations Research reactor .......................... Test reactor .................................. $76,500 76,500 7. In § 171.16, paragraphs (c), (d), and the introductory text of paragraph (e) are revised to read as follows: I § 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 ............................................................................................................................................................... Less than $350,000 ...................................................................................................................................................................... Small Not-For-Profit Organizations (Annual Gross Receipts): $350,000 to $6.5 million ............................................................................................................................................................... Less than $350,000 ...................................................................................................................................................................... Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500 employees or fewer: 35 to 500 employees .................................................................................................................................................................... Fewer than 35 employees ............................................................................................................................................................ Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly supported educational institutions) (Population): 20,000 to 50,000 .......................................................................................................................................................................... Fewer than 20,000 ....................................................................................................................................................................... Educational Institutions that are not State or Publicly Supported, and have 500 Employees or Fewer: 35 to 500 employees .................................................................................................................................................................... Fewer than 35 employees ............................................................................................................................................................ (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 $2,300 500 2,300 500 2,300 500 2,300 500 2,300 500 or approvals subject to fees under this section are shown in the following table: SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED BY NRC [See footnotes at end of table] Annual fees 1, 2, 3 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Category of materials licenses 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 Enriched Uranium) [Program Code(s): 21130] ................................................ (b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible 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 [Program Code(s): 21310, 21320] ................................................................................. (b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration facilities ........................................................................................................... (c) Others, including hot cell facilities ...................................................................................................................................... B. Licenses for receipt and storage of 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 [Program Code(s): 22140]. D. All other special nuclear material licenses, except licenses authorizing special nuclear material in unsealed form in combination that would constitute a critical quantity, as defined in § 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 operation of a uranium enrichment facility [Program Code(s): 21200] .................................... 2. Source material: A. (1) Licenses for possession and use of 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 Code(s): 11100] .................................................................................................................... (b) Class II facilities 4 [Program Code(s): 11500] .................................................................................................................... (c) Other facilities 4 [Program Code(s): 11700] ....................................................................................................................... VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 $3,007,000 899,000 341,000 558,000 248,000 N/A 11 1,600 4,500 1,705,000 589,000 10,300 10,300 N/A 5 32409 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED BY NRC—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] Annual fees 1, 2, 3 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Category of materials licenses (3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of byproduct material, as defined in § 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 byproduct material, as defined in § 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 of source material related to removal of contaminants (source material) from drinking water. B. Licenses that authorize only the possession, use and/or installation of source material for shielding [Program Code(s): 11210]. C. All other source material licenses [Program Code(s): 11200, 11220, 11221, 11230, 11300, 11800, 11810] ......................... 3. Byproduct material: A. Licenses of broad scope for 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 [Program Code(s): 03211, 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 [Program Code(s): 03214, 03215, 22135, 22162]. C. Licenses issued under §§ 32.72 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 § 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 §§ 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 §§ 32.72 and 32.74 of this chapter to nonprofit educational institutions whose processing or manufacturing is exempt under § 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 licensed under part 31 of this chapter ................................................................................. VerDate Aug<31>2005 16:20 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 N/A 5 10,300 6,200 590 10,200 22,900 6,500 9,200 5,200 3,100 6,100 24,400 8,700 8,100 1,900 1,500 11,600 4,200 6,500 11,100 2,100 N/A 13 32410 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED BY NRC—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] Annual fees 1, 2, 3 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Category of materials licenses 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 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 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-produced radionuclides [Program Code(s): 03210] ..................................................... 4. Waste disposal and processing: A. Licenses specifically authorizing the 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 [Program Code(s): 03234]. 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 [Program Code(s): 03232]. 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 [Program Code(s): 03110, 03111, 03112]. B. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct material for field flooding tracer studies [Program Code(s): 03113] .............. 6. Nuclear laundries: A. Licenses for commercial collection and 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 plutonium air packages .............................................................................................. 2. Other Casks ......................................................................................................................................................................... B. Quality assurance program approvals issued under part 71 of this chapter. 1. Users and Fabricators ......................................................................................................................................................... 2. Users ................................................................................................................................................................................... C. Evaluation of security plans, route approvals, route surveys, and transportation security devices (including immobilization devices). 11. Standardized spent fuel facilities ..................................................................................................................................................... 12. Special Projects ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13. A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Compliance ..................................................................................................................... B. General licenses for storage of spent fuel under 10 CFR 72.210 14. Decommissioning/Reclamation: VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 1,700 2,100 8,400 N/A 5 9,300 7,200 3,400 N/A 5 20,600 10,500 22,900 3,900 1,700 14,700 14,700 2,000 700 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 6 N/A 12 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 32411 SCHEDULE OF MATERIALS ANNUAL FEES AND FEES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED BY NRC—Continued [See footnotes at end of table] Annual fees 1, 2, 3 Category of materials licenses 15. 16. 17. 18. A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear 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 associated with unlicensed sites, whether or not the sites have been previously licensed. Import and Export licenses .............................................................................................................................................................. Reciprocity ....................................................................................................................................................................................... Master materials licenses of broad scope issued to Government agencies .................................................................................. Department of Energy: A. Certificates of Compliance ......................................................................................................................................................... B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) activities ............................................................................................ N/A 7 N/A 7 N/A 8 N/A 8 225,000 719,000 10 398,000 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 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 § 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 § 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 § 171.15(c). 12 See § 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. VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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 § 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32412 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 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 nonpower 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 twoperson licensee as for a large firm with thousands of employees. VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 wellloggers, 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 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 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 https://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 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 32413 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 fees@nrc.gov. 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 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 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. E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2 32414 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 110 / Friday, June 6, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 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 dwashington3 on PRODPC61 with RULES2 Small Businesses Not Engaged in Manufacturing (Average gross receipts over last 3 completed fiscal years): $350,000 to $6.5 million ................................................................................................................................................................... Less than $350,000 .......................................................................................................................................................................... Small Not-For-Profit Organizations (Annual Gross Receipts): $350,000 to $6.5 million ................................................................................................................................................................... Less than $350,000 .......................................................................................................................................................................... Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500 employees or fewer: 35 to 500 employees ........................................................................................................................................................................ Fewer than 35 employees ................................................................................................................................................................ Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly supported educational institutions) (Population): 20,000 to 50,000 .............................................................................................................................................................................. Fewer than 20,000 ........................................................................................................................................................................... Educational Institutions that are not State or Publicly Supported, and have 500 Employees or Fewer: 35 to 500 employees ........................................................................................................................................................................ Fewer than 35 employees ................................................................................................................................................................ 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. VerDate Aug<31>2005 15:23 Jun 05, 2008 Jkt 214001 (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 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 $2,300 500 2,300 500 2,300 500 2,300 500 2,300 500 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 fees.resource@nrc.gov, 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 E:\FR\FM\06JNR2.SGM 06JNR2

Agencies

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

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

[[Page 32385]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Part II

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 https://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 Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
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 https://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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov.

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
https://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

[[Page 32388]]

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 Renu.Suri@nrc.gov; 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 https://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.)

[[Page 32389]]

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 fees.resource@nrc.gov. In addition to publication in the Federal
Register, the final rule is available on the Internet at https://
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 https://
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 ur

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.