ML19332B565
| ML19332B565 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/14/1989 |
| From: | Bernero R NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | Scroggins R NRC OFFICE OF THE CONTROLLER |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19332B436 | List: |
| References | |
| FRN-54FR49763, RULE-PR-170, RULE-PR-170-MISC AD23-1-33, NUDOCS 8907070262 | |
| Download: ML19332B565 (3) | |
Text
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UNITED STATES
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION n
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Ronald M. Scroggins, Director Office of the Controller FROM:
Robert M. Bernero, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
SUBJECT:
LICENSE FEES 1
i This memorandum responds to your request for NMSS reexamination of several licensee fee areas and a final office position on proposed changes to the licensee fee schedule.
As a general rule, NMSS believes that staff hours from RITS should be the bases for estimating licensee fees, with management judgment applied when the RITS data are not adequate.
In this regard, a hierarchy exists in the time required to perform licensing reviews of new applications, renewals and amend-ments. That hierarchy is: new license application reviews take more time than renewals and license renewal reviews take more time than licenstag amendment reviews. On the average, the sianpower reporting data, staff experience and management judgment support this general finding.
However, there are a limited number of cases where this general rule dcas not apply. Specifically, 8
NMSS believes that the following classes of licensees require a different expenditure of staff time to complete the various licensing reviews.
1..
LICENSE FEE CATEGORY 38:
This class of licensees includes manufacturing and distribution operations utilizing a small number of radioisotopes, power source /SNM heat genera-tion manufacturing and heart pacemaker manufacturing and distribution.
The averge of two years of recorded staff time to perform licensing reviews of this c ass of licensees indicate that new application reviews require about 11 hours1.273148e-4 days <br />0.00306 hours <br />1.818783e-5 weeks <br />4.1855e-6 months <br />, amendments require about 5 hours5.787037e-5 days <br />0.00139 hours <br />8.267196e-6 weeks <br />1.9025e-6 months <br /> and renewals require about 20 hours2.314815e-4 days <br />0.00556 hours <br />3.306878e-5 weeks <br />7.61e-6 months <br />. We attribute this situation to two factors. First, this i
type of licensee often has frequent amendments to add new products or to change existing descriptions of products or processes. The renewal process often requires a review of many documents to determine which descriptions are current and which have been superceded; a situation which does not occur with a new application. Second, companies applying for new licenses-will on the average operate simpler programs using both smaller activities and varieties of radioisotopes than are utilized by the existing i
companies.
2.
LICENSE FEE CATEGORY 7C:
1 This class of licensees included hospitals, medical centers, clinics, private physicians and mobile nuclear medicine services. The recorded staff time over a two year period indicates that on an average it requires 310707021o 5
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2-e about six hours to review a new application, four hours for an amendment 5
and nine hours for a renewal. Please note that review time has decreased from the common time factor which was used to calculate the current fee schedule. Renewals require more time because the average new applicant-
.for a medical use license is a small clinic or private physician who is requesting. authorization to perform one or only a few medical procedures.
The average medical use licensee renewing a license is an institution offering a full variety of diagnostic services and often some therapy services. Because of the total revision of 10 CFR Part 35 in 1987, new applicants and licensees renewing medical use licenses must submit
-complete applications and descriptions for all activities to be authorized.
Thus the simplifications in the licensing process due to revision of 10 CFR Part 35 have helped reduce review time for the simpler programs being initiated more than for the existing programs with more activities to describe.
3.
For several other classes of licensees (3E, 3M, 3P, and 6A) the recorded staff time indicated that the review time for renewals was greater than for new applications.: However, further analysis and application of manage-ment judgment determined that the data were not representative of the usual situation or were based on small sample size. Therefore, we recommend that the time necessary to perform the review of a new or a renewal application should be approximately the same for these classes of licensees.
-The NMSS inspection staff time rates included in 10 CFR Part 170 were developed' based'on recorded staff time, regional' management estimates and management judgment. With this additional evaluation, NMSS now recommends that the hours charged for inspecting one class of licensee be reduced.
License category 2B routine inspections-require approximately 4 hours4.62963e-5 days <br />0.00111 hours <br />6.613757e-6 weeks <br />1.522e-6 months <br /> not 10, and non-routine inspections require C hours, not 14. With this change, NMSS has selected the more conservative manpower estimate in all cases. The pro-L posed rates 1nclude all time necessary to complete a licensee inspection. That
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is, preparation for the inspection by. going through the docket, file and other
-historical data to become familiar with the individual licensees operation, travel to the site, conducting the actual on-site inspection, return travel to the Regional or Headquarters Office and finally the preparation and approval of the inspection report describing and documenting the inspection. The NMSS experience with inspections of material licensees has shown a significant
-increase in the time required to perform these services.
This increase is due in large part to the NRC's response to the increasing number of incidents or events involving materials licensees, particularly L
medical use misadministrations. The Commission has demanded that greater regulatory oversight be provided to the nuclear material licensees and users. Therefore, the increase in inspection time is appropriate due to the more thorough inspections now being performed.
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The foregoing information represents the NMSS position concerning the hours charged to service our various materials licensees.
Finally, I understand that during the meeting on license fees an option was discussed by OGC which would result in licensees being charged a single, fixed fee for services, but they would be billed over multi-years. We support that option, if it passes legal review.
It would greatly reduce the administrative burden associated with license fee collection from material licensees.
Robert M. Bernero, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards cc:
H. L. Thompson, Jr., DEDS
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