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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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fees for NRC work that provides specific benefits to identifiable recipients such as licensing work, inspections, and special projects. The NRCs regulations in 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, explain how the agency collects service fees from specific beneficiaries. Because the NRCs fee recovery under the IOAA 10 CFR part 170 will not equal 100 percent of the agencys total budget authority for the fiscal year less the budget authority for excluded activities, the NRC also assesses annual fees under 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, to recover the remaining amount necessary to comply with NEIMA.
In addition, Section 102b3Bi of NEIMA establishes a new cap for the annual fees charged to operating reactor licensees; under this provision, the annual fee for an operating reactor licensee, to the maximum extent practicable, shall not exceed the annual fee amount per operating reactor licensee established in the FY 2015 final fee rule 80 FR 37432; June 30, 2015, adjusted for inflation see Section II, Discussion, FY 2021 Fee Collection Revised Annual Fees, of this final rule.
B. Accurate Invoicing Section 102d of NEIMA requires three sets of actions related to NRC
invoices for service fees assessed under 10 CFR part 170. First, as stated in Section 102d1 of NEIMA, the NRC
must ensure appropriate review and approval prior to the issuance of invoices for service fees. Second, as stated in Section 102d2 of NEIMA, the NRC must develop and implement processes to audit invoices for 10 CFR
part 170 service fees to ensure accuracy, transparency, and fairness.
Third, as stated in Section 102d3 of NEIMA, the NRC is required to modify regulations to ensure fair and appropriate processes to provide licensees and applicants an opportunity to efficiently dispute or otherwise seek review and correction of errors in invoices for service fees.
The NRC developed and implemented process improvements to ensure accurate invoicing for the first two actions. First, in July 2019, the NRC
implemented a new agencywide process to standardize the validation of fees,
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which fully satisfies Section 102d1
and partially addresses Section 102d2 of NEIMA. The new standardized process improved accountability and oversight within the NRC to ensure that fee billing data is correct before appearing on a licensees invoice. Standardizing the fee validation process defines roles and responsibilities for performing fee billing validation and certification; this standardization process also improves accountability and internal controls by adding management oversight to improve the accuracy of fee billing data.
The NRCs new process will lead to improved internal and external auditing of service fee invoices to ensure accuracy, transparency, and fairness of invoices. The process requires offices with fee billable charges to regularly review and certify hours and costs to validate the charges before the NRC
sends a bill for service fees. On an annual basis, external financial statement auditors will conduct an audit of a sample of invoices to determine whether the NRC is accurately invoicing in accordance with the NRCs fee schedules. Therefore, the NRCs invoices will be reviewed and audited by both internal and external parties.
The second NEIMA accurate invoicing action also concerns the transparency and fairness of the overall billing process. The NRC is firmly committed to the application of fairness and equity in the assessment of fees. All 10 CFR part 170 service fees are reassessed and published in the Federal Register on a yearly basis. In January 2018, the NRC redesigned its invoices to add clarity and transparency for its stakeholders; new features included an invoice legend of NRC acronyms and the names of individual NRC staff and/
or the contractor company, if applicable, who had performed the work associated with the charges were added. In addition, the NRCs staff hours and contractor costs were listed separately on invoices so the recipient could view the subtotals for the two different categories of costs. Finally, the NRC
implemented a new data structure to more effectively account for and track all billable work at the project level. The structure included a data element called an Enterprise Project Identifier EPID, which provides useful details regarding the type of project or work that is being billed. Inspection report numbers were converted to EPIDs to provide more information, and descriptions of inspection activities were added to the invoice. Using this data structure enabled the NRCs licensees and other persons assessed service fees to identify
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how many hours are being expended on each of the various activities within a project. To further these efforts, the NRC
standardized its Cost Activity Codes CACs for all agency activities to clearly provide licensees with consistent descriptions of the work being performed across licensing actions, inspections, and over multiple dockets.
Invoices for service fees are now presented in a more useful and readable manner and hours and costs are no longer commingled. As a result, the NRCs invoices provide stakeholders greater transparency regarding fees.
In addition, in October 2019, the NRC
released an electronic billing eBilling system. This public-facing, web-based application provides persons assessed service fees, including licensees, immediate delivery of NRC invoices, customizable email notifications, the capability to view and analyze invoice details, and access to the U.S.
Department of the Treasury systems to pay invoices. The eBilling application provides persons assessed service fees, including licensees, increased billing process transparency and has increased applicant and licensee confidence in the assessed fees and charges.
To address the third action, the NRC
is modifying the regulations under 10
CFR chapter I to provide a standard process for licensees and applicants to efficiently dispute or otherwise seek review and correction of errors in invoices for services fees see Section II, Discussion, FY 2021Policy Changes, of this final rule.
II. Discussion FY 2021 Fee CollectionOverview The NRC is issuing this FY 2021 final fee rule based on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 the enacted budget. The final fee rule reflects a total budget authority in the amount of $844.4 million, a decrease of $11.2
million from FY 2020. As explained previously, certain portions of the NRCs total budget authority for the fiscal year are excluded from NEIMAs fee-recovery requirement under Section 102b1B of NEIMA. Based on the FY
2021 enacted budget, these exclusions total $123.0 million, consisting of $91.2
million for fee-relief activities, $17.7
million for advanced reactor regulatory infrastructure activities, $11.7 million for generic homeland security activities, $1.2 million for waste incidental to reprocessing activities, and $1.2 million for Inspector General services for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
Table I summarizes the excluded activities for the FY 2021 final rule.

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