The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently proposed changes to its regulations that include reducing the annual fees for most applicants and licensees for fiscal year 2016, thanks to the commission’s decreased budget.
The NRC is required by law to charge fees amounting to approximately 90 percent of its budget, which, when adjusted for billing and collection, reaches $883.9 million for fiscal 2016. Roughly 37 percent of those fees will recover costs of specific services provided to identifiable applicants and licensees, while the remaining 63 percent would come from annual fees.
While the fees for most uranium-recovery licensees would increase under the proposed rule, fees for operating reactors, fuel facilities, research and test reactors, spent-fuel storage and reactor decommissioning licensees, some material users and Department of Energy transportation activities would decrease. The rule would also reduce the hourly rate for staff review time from $268 to $266.
The NRC is also proposing to assess fees on “Touhy requests” that amount to more than 50 NRC staff hours. “Touhy requests” seek information, records and NRC employee testimony for lawsuits in which the agency is not a named party.
