Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for Fiscal Year 2026
Key claim: The NRC is amending its FY2026 licensing and annual fee schedules to recover approximately 100% of its budget as required by NEIMA, while also establishing fixed fee caps per Executive Order 14300 to improve cost predictability and efficiency.
Abstract
(Rule · Nuclear Regulatory Commission) The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending the licensing, inspection, special project, and annual fees charged to its applicants and licensees. These amendments are necessary to comply with the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, which requires the NRC to recover, to the maximum extent practicable, approximately 100 percent of its annual budget, less certain amounts excluded from this fee recovery requirement. In addition, the NRC is making amendments to establish fixed caps on service fees to implement section5(a) of Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” The fixed fee caps will provide cost predictability and drive increased efficiency and accountability in the NRC’s licensing and other activities requested by applicants and licensees.
Why this matters
NRC fees are the single largest recurring federal cost for reactor and materials licensees and are set by statute to recover essentially the agency’s full budget, so annual fee rules directly shape the economics of nuclear power and fuel-cycle deployment. The FY2026 addition of fixed fee caps under EO 14300 is a modest but concrete example of the administration’s cross-agency push to make regulatory costs more predictable, and it sits alongside NRC’s broader modernization of licensing, hearings, and security rules.