The Disposition Dilemma Controlling the Release of Solid Materials from Nuclear Regulatory Commission-Licensed Facilities (2002) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-32
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From page 13... ...
-licensed facilities. Accordingly, the analyses in the first nine chapters and the recommendations in Chapter 10 pertain primarily to slightly radioactive solid materials currently under the regulatory control of the USNRC or agreement states.1 The term "slightly radioactive solid material" (SRSM)
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From page 14... ...
The 1957 regulation did not include criteria specifying an amount or concentration of a radionuclide in a solid material,4 below which the solid material would be exempt from regulatory control or conditional clearance (Box 1-1~.5 However, pursuant to Section 2002 of 10 CFR Part 20, added in a later revision of the regulation, the USNRC and agreement states evaluate requests by licensees for permission to release solid materials on a case-by-case basis, using existing regulatory guidance.6 The situation for gaseous and liquid materials is different, 3References to the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) will be given using the conventional format with the code title (here, Title 10)
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From page 16... ...
After the facility or equipment has been decontaminated and if the residual surface radiation levels do not exceed the limits stated in Table I of Regulatory Guide 1.86, the licensee may release the equipment or the USNRC may authorize termination of the facility license. Ever since the guide was issued, Table I has been used as a basis for releasing surface-contaminated material from further regulatory control when appropriate for example, when incorporated into the conditions of a license.
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From page 17... ...
In the text of the revised 10 CFR Part 20, the USNRC recognized that the ALARA standard for reactor effluent releases, combined with the EPA fuel cycle standard, in effect set a limit on exposure of the general public to radioactive effluents that was only a few percent of the USNRC dose limit of 100 mrem/yr. Optimization through an ALARA standard is central to the USNRC's radiation protection strategy.
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From page 18... ...
A proposed rule (45 Federal Register 70874; October 27, 9The USNRC regularly applies ALARA with protection limits but recognizes that the margin induced by ALARA can vary widely from case to case for example, the contrast in site decommissioning between users of sealed sources and users of unsealed quantities of radioactive materials (59 Federal Register 43208)
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From page 19... ...
In contrast to the release of a material from regulatory control, exemption from control may be considered in some circumstances, for example, when a small amount of radioactive material is added to a product deliberately to serve some justified purpose. To account for different possible exposures, the exposure limit set for clearance (i.e., unrestricted release)
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From page 20... ...
THE U.S. AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE GENERATION The ionizing radiation from radioactive materials has been used for more than a century.
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From page 21... ...
, 1 year's typical use Additional annual dose received from residence in a brick house, versus a wooden frame house Annual dose from nuclear power plant to maximally exposed person (airborne effluents) Pressurized water reactor Boiling water reactor Annual dose received from natural levels of potassium-40 in the body Additional annual dose from cosmic rays received in Santa Fe, New Mexico, versus sea level Additional annual dose from natural background received in Denver, Colorado, versus Atlantic Seaboard due to all natural sources (cosmic rays, terrestrial deposits of radionuclides, etc.)
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From page 22... ...
With global trade, at least trace amounts of radioactive materials will certainly be shipped across many borders. Detailed discussion of the international aspects of clearance regulations can be found in Chapter 7.
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From page 23... ...
Although not licensed by the USNRC, DOE manages and disposes of a significant portion of the nuclear material within the United States and is discussed here to show the broader context for the handling and disposition of such material. Because most DOE sites were involved in producing enriched uranium and plutonium, the radioactive materials contain long-lived radionuclides, including actinides such as neptunium and americium.
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Materials were disposed or stored on-site, with limited attention to the safeguards now taken for granted. Today, cleaning up discarded radioactive materials from the 1940s and 1950s at many DOE sites poses major problems for the contractors involved.
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There are no federal statutes that specifically establish regulatory control of TENORM, although some waste streams fall under the jurisdiction of the EPA. Control of TENORM has been left to the states, and some agreement states regulate TENORM under their general rules governing the possession of radioactive materials.
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From page 26... ...
Solid materials potentially available for release from regulatory control include metals, building concrete, on-site soils, equipment, and furniture used in routine operation of licensed nuclear facilities. Most of this material will have no radioactive contamination, but some of it may have surface or volume contamination.
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From page 27... ...
These bodies have adopted sets of standards based on an annual dose of 10 ,uSv/yr (1 mrem/yr) , which is broadly accepted by the radiation protection community as a de minimis dose.l9 Consistency among standards is an important concern because of the potential import or export of released materials between the United States and other countries.
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From page 28... ...
Congress, makes recommendations regarding acceptable levels of radiation exposure to the general public, including levels considered to present a de minimis health risk. THE STUDY TASK AND APPROACH The USNRC is considering whether to establish a new regulation that would set specific limits for the release of solid materials with low levels of radioactivity (64 Federal Register 35090-35100; June 30, 1999~.
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3. The committee shall determine whether there are sufficient technical bases to establish criteria for controlling the release of slightly contaminated solid materials.
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From page 30... ...
by applying the linear, no-threshold hypothesis to various incremental annual doses. Second, the committee did not independently explore the relative validity of various biological risk assessments associated with radiation dose.
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The members observed and studied the methods currently used to release solid materials with low concentrations of radioactive contamination from regulatory control. Report Content The regulatory framework for controlling the release of solid materials with radioactive contamination is described in Chapter 2, which is organized into three main sections.
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Consensus-building processes to involve stakeholders are presented. Chapter 9 presents the committee's version of a decision framework for considering alternatives for controlling the release of solid materials with radioactive contamination.
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