The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is asking for increased fees
for their licensing, inspection, and special projects for fiscal year
2024.

In January 2019, the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA) was enacted. As stated by Congress.gov, this bill “revises the budget and fee structure of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and requires the NRC to develop new processes for licensing nuclear reactors, including staged licensing of advanced nuclear reactors.”  In addition, it required the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recover its budget each year beginning in FY 2024 (October 2023 through September 2024). The exact amount is a complex calculation but for FY 2024, they will need to recover $825.7 million of their proposed $1.01 billion budget. The NRC wants to bring in an additional $27.1 million in carryover funds, increasing the total amount of fees they want to recover to $979.2 million.

The plan is for $205.5 million to be recovered under 10CFR Part 170, which sets the fees for licensing services, inspection services, and special projects rendered by the NRC. These fees are associated with the licensing of our nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear plants, SMR small modular reactors (SMR), and reactor
and senior reactor operators, including examinations and tests performed to qualify or requalify individuals.

$620.2 million will be recovered under 10CFR Part 171, which sets the annual fees charged to those who hold licenses, Certificates of Compliance, sealed source and device registrations, and quality assurance program approvals issued by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including licenses, registrations, approvals, and certificates issued to a government agency.

Compared with the FY 2023 budget, the proposed annual fee would decrease for operating power reactors, but it would increase for fuel facilities,
spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning activities, nonpower production or
utilization facilities, transportation activities for the U.S. Department of
Energy, the non-DOE uranium recovery licensee, the Uranium Mill Tailings
Radiation Control Act Program, and all materials users fee categories. 

Licensees and applicants will see an increase in the NRC’s hourly rate – increasing from $300 to $321- and the license application fee will be increased, accordingly.

According to the nrc.gov, written comments to the proposed rules will be accepted through March 21.