ML20029B998
| ML20029B998 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 08/13/1990 |
| From: | Carr K NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Higgins E ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, ST. LOUIS, MO |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20029B990 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-90-415, FRN-53FR49886, RULE-PR-CHP1 NUDOCS 9103220185 | |
| Download: ML20029B998 (3) | |
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August 13, 1990 CHAIRMAN Mr. Edward Higgins Editorial Page Editor The Post-Discatch 900 N. Tucker Blvd.
St. Louis, Missouri 63101 Dear Mr. Higgins I want to clarify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's policy on exempting slightly radioactive materials that are below regulatory concern, which you addressed in your July 5 editorial.
The NRC's goal is to protect the public health and safety and the environment and I am confident our recent policy accomplishes our goal.
When the HRC implements this policy, we will ensure that any levels of radiation from exempted activities will be comparable to the lou levels that most of us encounter in routine activities such as the use of smoke detectors in our homes today.
Let me give you a frame of reference with respect to radiacion.
We each get about 350 millirem per year of radiation dose from outer space,
- air, food, drink, soils, building raterials, and medical exams.
In fact, our policy is basically consistent with the recommendations of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and the latest scientific assessments on the risk of radiation by scientists in national and international groups, including the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
For example, a recent National Academy of Sciences report noted no increase in health effects has been documented in populations residing in areas of high natural background radiation. I want to emphasize that most of the radiation levels used by the eminent scientists who wrote this study as a basis for risk estimates are a thousand times higher, that is 10 m (not 10 millim), than the levels in the NRC's policy statement.
The estimates of health effects cited in your editorial as being associated with the BRC policy are simply not reasonable.
The current disposal of high level and low-level radioactive wastes are incorrectly described in your editorial. Commercial high-level i
vastes are the very radioactive used fuel from nuclear power plants.
For the most part, this fuel is now stored at the nuclear power plant sites awaiting the establishment of a
Federal repository by the Department of Energy.
The NRC has no intention of exempting high-level radioactivs waste or most low level waste.
Based on studies prepared by the nuclear utilities and the Environmental Protection Agency, only about 0.01 % or less of the i
radioactivity in low level waste would be eligible for exemption i
under our_ policy, t
9103220185 910314-PDR FOIA l
BECKER90-415 PDR~
r Mr. Edward Higgins Safety is our responsibility, and it is a matter that we at the NRC take most seriously. NRC has been exempting very low levels of radioactive materials on a case-by-case basis for many years.
The goal is to protect tha public health and safety and we are NRC'J confident that regulatory cisions based on current and sound scientific information will do just that.
Sincerely, nk.k Kennath M. Carr i
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