Je veux savoir à propos de…

tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 33 / Monday, February 22, 2021 / Proposed Rules fee-relief activities. Accordingly, the NRC would no longer provide a feerelief credit when the amount budgeted for fee-relief activities is less than the 10
percent threshold, which would have decreased annual fees for licensees or assess a fee-relief surcharge when the amount budgeted for fee-relief activities is greater than the 10 percent threshold, which would have increased annual fees for licensees as part of the calculation of annual fees for each licensee fee class.
In FY 2021, the NRCs fee regulations are primarily governed by two laws: 1
The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1952 IOAA 31 U.S.C. 9701, and 2 NEIMA 42 U.S.C. 2215. The IOAA
authorizes and encourages Federal agencies to recoverto the fullest extent possiblecosts attributable to services provided to identifiable recipients.
Under NEIMA, the NRC must recover, to the maximum extent practicable, approximately 100 percent of its annual budget, less the budget authority for excluded activities. Under Section 102b1B of NEIMA, excluded activities include any fee-relief activity as identified by the Commission, generic homeland security activities, waste incidental to reprocessing activities, Nuclear Waste Fund activities, advanced reactor regulatory infrastructure activities, Inspector General services for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, research and development at universities in areas relevant to the NRCs mission, and a nuclear science and engineering grant program.
In FY 2021, the fee-relief activities identified by the Commission are consistent with prior final fee rules and include Agreement State oversight, regulatory support to Agreement States, medical isotope production infrastructure, fee exemptions for nonprofit educational institutions, costs not recovered from small entities under 10
CFR 171.16c, generic decommissioning/reclamation activities, the NRCs uranium recovery program and unregistered general licenses, potential U.S. Department of Defense Program Memorandum of Understanding activities Military Radium-226, and non-military radium sites. In addition, for FY 2021, the Commission identified international activities, not including the resources for import and export licensing, as feerelief activities to be excluded from the fee-recovery requirement.
Under NEIMA, the NRC must use its IOAA authority first to collect service fees for NRC work that provides specific benefits to identifiable recipients such as licensing work, inspections, and
VerDate Sep<11>2014

18:29 Feb 19, 2021

Jkt 253001

special projects. The NRCs regulations in part 170 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations 10 CFR, 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 budget authority for the fiscal year, 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 III, Discussion, FY 2021 Fee Collection Revised Annual Fees, of this proposed 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, which fully satisfies Section 102d1
and partially addresses Section 102d2 of NEIMA. The new standardized process improved
PO 00000

Frm 00003

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

10461

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, 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 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 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
E:FRFM22FEP1.SGM

22FEP1