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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 33 / Monday, February 22, 2021 / Proposed Rules
independent of the number of SMR
plants, the number of SMR licenses issued, and the sequencing of the SMR
licenses that have been issued. There are currently no operating SMRs;
therefore, the NRC has not yet assessed an annual fee for this type of licensee.
The NRC recognizes that, after the issuance of an operating license under 10 CFR part 50 for NPUFs and SMRs, or a COL and 52.103g finding under 10
CFR part 52 for SMRs, fuel or targets or both must be loaded and startup testing for NPUFs and power ascension testing for SMRs must be completed before the facility begins full licensed operation. As discussed in the statement of considerations for the FY 2020 final fee rule, 10 CFR part 52 COLs for power reactors contain a standard license condition that requires the submittal of written notification to the NRC upon successful completion of power ascension testing. Therefore, the NRC
proposes to incorporate a similar license condition into all future 10 CFR part 50
operating licenses for NPUFs and SMRs, and 10 CFR part 52 COLs for SMRs to ensure that the licensee will promptly notify the NRC of the successful completion of startup testing or power ascension testing. The proposed annual fee assessment for future NPUFs and SMR licenses under 10 CFR part 50, and SMRs under 10 CFR part 52, would begin on the date of the licensees written notification of the successful completion of startup testing or power ascension testing.
Accordingly, the NRC proposes to amend 171.15a and 171.15e so that annual fees commence upon written notification to the NRC of successful completion of startup testing and power ascension testing, rather than upon issuance of the operating license for 10 CFR part 50 NPUFs and SMRs, or issuance of the 52.103g finding for 10
CFR part 52 COL holders for SMRs, but upon written notification to the NRC of successful completion of startup testing and/or power ascension testing. The NRC finds this proposed change to 10
CFR part 171 to be reasonable, fair, and equitable, and to be supported by the public comments the NRC received on PRM1711 and on the FY 2020
proposed rule. The NRC also proposes conforming changes to revise 170.3, Definitions, 171.3, Scope, 171.5, Definitions, and 171.17, Proration.

1. Change Small Entity Fees As stated in SECY080174, Fiscal Year 2009 Proposed Fee Rule and Advance Rulemaking for GridAppropriate Reactor Fees, dated November 7, 2008 ADAMS Accession No. ML083120518, the NRC
determined that the maximum small entity fee should be adjusted biennially using a fixed percentage of 39 percent applied to the prior 2-year weighted average of materials users fees for all fee categories which have small entity licensees. The 39 percent was based on the small entity annual fee for 2005, which was the first year the NRC was required to recover only 90 percent of its budget authority. This methodology remains in place; however, the NRC
does also consider whether or not implementing an increase will have a disproportionate impact on the NRCs small licensees when compared to other licensees. Therefore, the increase for the upper and lower tier fees were capped at a 21 percent increase.
For the FY 2021 proposed fee rule, the NRC conducted a biennial review of small entity fees to determine whether the NRC should change those fees. The NRC used the fee methodology, developed in FY 2009, which applies a fixed percentage of 39 percent to the prior 2-year weighted average of materials users fees, when performing its biennial review. Based on this methodology and as a result of the FY
2021 biennial review, the NRC is now proposing to increase the upper tier small entity fee from $4,500 to $4,900
and increase the lower tier fee from $900 to $1,000.
This would constitute a 9 percent and 11 percent increase, respectively. The NRC believes these fees are reasonable and provide relief to small entities while at the same time recovering from those licensees some of the NRCs costs for activities that benefit them.
2. Amend 170.1, Purpose, To Change the Reference to the Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1952
The NRC proposes to amend 170.1
to replace the of after Independent Offices Appropriation Act with a comma to make the reference to the legislation consistent with references in other NRC contexts.

FY 2021Administrative Changes
3. Amend 170.3, Definitions, To Eliminate Definitions for Balance of Plants, Nuclear Steam Supply System, and Reference Systems Concept
The NRC proposes to make six administrative changes:

The NRC proposes to amend 170.3
to eliminate definitions for Balance of
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plants, Nuclear Steam Supply System, and Reference systems concept. These definitions are no longer applicable in 10 CFR part 170.
These definitions were added in the FY
1977 final fee rule 43 FR 7210; March 23, 1978 to resolve issues concerning assessing fees for balance of plant reviews, related to a previous fee category category A.4.b in the table at 170.21 for standardized designreference systems concept, that was not subject to full cost recovery. In the FY
1991 final fee rule, the NRC amended 10
CFR parts 52 and 170 to assess licensing fees for the review of standardized reactor designs, which would be subject to full cost recovery 56 FR 31472; July 10, 1991. This proposed amendment to eliminate these definitions will not impact the NRCs assessment of 10 CFR
part 170 fees for service.
4. Remove Footnote 6 to the Table in 170.21, and Footnote 12 to the Table in 170.31
The NRC proposes to remove footnote 6 to the table in 170.21 and footnote 12 to the table in 170.31 because 1
Congress has not enacted legislation that would exclude import and export activities from the fee-recoverable budget in FY 2021; and 2 in accordance with NEIMA, for FY 2021, the NRC identified international activities as fee-relief activities, but it did not include resources for import and export licensing. The NRC is therefore proposing to charge fees for import and export licensing actions.
5. Amend 171.5, Definitions, To Replace the Reference in Budget Authority The NRC proposes to amend the definition of budget authority to replace the reference to Public Law 101
508 i.e., OBRA90 with a reference to Public Law 115439 i.e., NEIMA.
Effective October 1, 2020, NEIMA
repealed Section 6101 of OBRA90 and put in place a revised fee recovery framework, requiring the NRC to recover, to the maximum extent practicable, approximately 100 percent of its annual budget, less the budget authority for excluded activities.
6. Amend 171.11c, Exemptions The NRC proposes to revise 171.11c to change the or in the section to and. This proposed change would accurately reflect that even when an exemption is in the public interest, the NRC cannot grant the exemption unless it is authorized by law. This proposed change would also harmonize 171.11c with 170.11b, which uses
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