ML19347D975
| ML19347D975 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/19/1981 |
| From: | Kammerer C NRC OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS (OCA) |
| To: | Baucus M SENATE |
| References | |
| FRN-45FR67018, FRN-45FR70874, RULE-PR-150, RULE-PR-20, RULE-PR-30, RULE-PR-32, RULE-PR-70 45FR67018, 45FR70874, NUDOCS 8104140548 | |
| Download: ML19347D975 (3) | |
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9 UNITED STATES
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISS!ON
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The Honorable Max Bau United States senate g] %Ma of 'Gb S
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Dear Senator Baucus:
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. J.S Thank you for your letter %Md-N#cF4,1981, on behalf of your constit-uents, Florence Chessin and'DtistWth Moore, concerning two proposed changes in !1RC regulations.
Both changes would relieve licensees of unnecessary and costly regulatory burdens.
The first, published for comment in the Federal Recister on October 17, 1980, and approved by the Comission as a final rule on February 26, 1981, will allow tiRC licensees to dispose of liquid scintillation, media and animal carcasses containing trace quantities of hydrogen-3 or carbon-14 without regard to their radioactivity. The items in question are widely used in research laboratories and hospitals throughout the country. Most licensees presently dispose of these items by sending them to a radio-active waste burial ground or by obtaining special authorization from flRC for incineration or onsite burial.
Scintillation media are toxic and flamable, while animal carcasses used in research are sometimes pathogenic. These characteristics pose a more important public health problem than their radicactivity, which is quite small, and licensees will still be required to comply with applicable Federal, State and local laws governing chemical and biological hazards in their disposal.
In addition to eliminating a costly and needless regulatory burden for many hospitals and research facilities, the change nave several other positive effects.
Present disposal. in comercial radioactive waste disposal grounds necessitates the transportation of these wastes, often over great distances, and at great expense to licensees.
The transportation poses difficult handling problems because the scintillation media are both flamable and chemically carcinogenic, and the decaying carcasses, in addition to being unsanitary, generate methane gas which can explode or otherwise rupture waste containers.
The wastes consume scarce waste disposal grounds capacity, which would otherwise be used for radioactive wastes truly requiring burial. Moreover, should the three existing low-level radioactive wastes burial sites be closed for any reason, there ceuld be a prompt and serious interuption of biomedical research and diagnostic' activities throughout the nation.
I am enclosing for the information of your constituent a copy of the final rule adopted by the Comission as well as a copy of the value/ impact statement prepared by the !iRC staff to support the rule.
The other proposed rule, published for coment in the Federal Register f
on October 27, 1980, would amend existing regulations to exempt frca licensing and regulatory requirements technetium-99 and low-enriched n\\-
uranium as -esidual contamination in ary smelted alloy.
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The rulemaking was originally undertaken'by the Comission at the request of the Department of Energy and pursuant to a 1974 amendment (p.L.93-377) i to the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954.. The rulemaking would permit the recycling of scrap metal from discarded equipment at DOE's uranium i
enrichment plants. This scrap metal is sometimes contaminated with small amounts of byproduct or special nuclear material resulting from the enrich-i ment process. This contamination cannot practically be removed but is considered too insignificant to constitute a radiation health or safety problem.
Until Congress amended the AEA in 1974, it was necessary for the Comission to issue a specific license for the possession of this type of radioactive material, no matter how small the quantity.
In amending the Act, Congress gave the Comission the authority to exempt minute quantities of special nuclear material from its licensing requirements if it finds that a licensing exemption "will not constitute an unreasonable risk to the comon defense and security and to the health and safety of the public."
We would like to emphasize that under the proposed amendments persons who smelt scrap contaminated with technetium-99 or low-enriched uranium or who are the first transferors of such smelted alloy would rot be exempt from licensing requirements.
Such persons would be under license and would be required to submit a description of the decontamination and smelting procedures and sampling and analytical procedures to be used.
This would assure that the smelted alloys subsequently 'a be used under the exemption meet the proposed maximum contamination limits.
It is also should be noted that the scope of the exemption is narrow permitting only the technetium-99 and low-enriched uranium as the contaminants. Contaminants such as pluto-nium, high-enriched uranium or other transuranics are not included in the exemption. The Tc-99 amd low-enriched uranium would be minor constituents (less than 5 parts per million (ppm) and 17.5 ppm, respectively) of representative samples of smelted' alloys.
The resulting levels of contamination would be at or below those of many products comonly in use which contain traces of unenriched uranium. For J
example, most building materials contain some traces of uranium (granite, 4.7 ppm; cement, 3.4 ppm; by-product gypsum,13.7 ppm). Dental porcelain, used in making false teeth, has been found to contain from 10 to'990 ppm uranium. The U.S. NRC upper limit for unimportant quantities of unenriched uraniun is 500 ppm. There is essentially no difference in the nature of the radioactivity emitted from this unenriched uranium and the low-enriched uranium being considered for exemption.
The NRC staff has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in support of the proposed rule. Without the exemption, thousands of tons of government-owned nickel, copper, iron and steel scrap would have to be disposed of as radioactive waste at substantial cost to the 'axpayers.
If exempted, this metal could be smelted down and resold for in excess of S40 million.
Further, energy savings from recycle have been estimated at the equivalent of about 170,000 barrels of crude oil or 30,000 Mg of coal.
By conoarison wit;. these benefits, the risk of cancer from release and unrestricted use of the entire inventory of smelted alloy is estimated
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1 to be considerably less than one. This means that it is highly unlikely that the recycled alloy would cause even one cancer in one person in tne total U.S. population.
Notice of the proposed rule was made in the Federal Register and the press on October 27, 1980. The comment period expired December 11, 1980.
Comments received after the expiration date will be considered if it is practical to do so. To date, over 3,000 public comments have been received.
Conments will be reviewed and addressed in the Final EIS before any decision is made by the conoission on promulgation of a final rule.
Enclosed for your information is a copy of the Draft Environcental Impact Statement.
,Your constituents also inquired about the NRC's suspension of its rule providing free transcripts to intervenors in licensing proceedings. The enclosed copy of the February 24, 1981 Federal Recister notice explains why NRC's program of providing free transcripts to intervenors in licensing proceedings was halted on December 4, 1980. The Commission took this action based on a decision of the Comptroller General of the United States
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that the use of FY 1931 funds to implement such a program would be unlawful under Section 502 of the Energy and Nater Development Appropriations Act for FY 1981 (P.L.96-367). The Comptroller General's letter is also enclosed.
Your interest in these matters is appreciated.
Sincerely, g), j,[ / '
m nLuw arlton Kammerer, Director Office of Congressional Affairs
Enclosures:
As stated O