Low Specific Activity
Low Specific Activity (LSA)
Low Specific Activity (LSA) material means radioactive material with limited specific activity which is nonfissile or is excepted under § 71.15, and which satisfies the descriptions and limits set forth in the following section. Shielding materials surrounding the LSA material may not be considered in determining the estimated average specific activity of the package contents. The LSA material must be in one of three groups:
(1) LSA—I.
(i) Uranium and thorium ores, concentrates of uranium and thorium ores, and other ores containing naturally occurring radionuclides that are intended to be processed for the use of these radionuclides;
(ii) Natural uranium, depleted uranium, natural thorium or their compounds or mixtures, provided they are unirradiated and in solid or liquid form;
(iii) Radioactive material other than fissile material, for which the A2 value is unlimited; or
(iv) Other radioactive material in which the activity is distributed throughout and the estimated average specific activity does not exceed 30 times the value for exempt material activity concentration determined in accordance with appendix A.
(2) LSA—II.
(i) Water with tritium concentration up to 0.8 TBq/liter (20.0 Ci/liter); or
(ii) Other radioactive material in which the activity is distributed throughout and the estimated average specific activity does not exceed 10–4 A2/g for solids and gases, and 10–5 A2/g for liquids.
(3) LSA—III. Solids (e.g., consolidated wastes, activated materials), excluding powders, that satisfy the requirements of § 71.77, in which:
(i) The radioactive material is distributed throughout a solid or a collection of solid objects, or is essentially uniformly distributed in a solid compact binding agent (such as concrete, bitumen, ceramic, etc.);
(ii) The radioactive material is relatively insoluble, or it is intrinsically contained in a relatively insoluble material, so that even under loss of packaging, the loss of radioactive material per package by leaching, when placed in water for 7 days will not exceed 0.1 A2; and
(iii) The estimated average specific activity of the solid, excluding any shielding material, does not exceed 2 x 10–3A2/g.