The nuclear watchdog said that it is required by the Congress to recover for the US Treasury most of its annual appropriated budget through two types of fees.
One is for specific NRC services, such as licensing and inspection activities, that apply to a specific license while the other is an annual fee for generic regulatory expenses and other costs not recovered through fees for specific services.
These fees are are paid to the US Treasury and go into the general fund.
The NRC must recover, through fees to applicants and licensees, 90% of its budget authority for fiscal year 2011 (1 October 2010 – 30 September 2011).
The NRC receives 10% of its budget authority (not including non-fee items) from the general fund each year to pay for the cost of the agency activities that do not provide a direct benefit to NRC licensees.
Based on the fiscal year 2011 budget, the NRC’s total amount of fees to be recovered by 30 September is approximately $915.3m, about less than 1% ($0.4m) more than in fiscal year 2010.
