ML20062F322
| ML20062F322 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/19/1990 |
| From: | Chilk S NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY) |
| To: | Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| References | |
| REF-10CFR9.7 NUDOCS 9011270211 | |
| Download: ML20062F322 (7) | |
Text
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- RELEASED TO THE PDR
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UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION l
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W ASHIN G T ON. D.C. 20555 e
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cate October 19, 1990 OFFICE OF THE SE CRET ARY MEMORANDUM FOR:
James M. Taylor Executive Director for op tions FROM:
Samuel J. Chilk, SecretarND
SUBJECT:
SECY-90-322 - NRC COMMEN i DRAFT CIRRPC POLICY REPORT ADERESSING THN NEED FOR NARM REGULATION The Commission (witt, all Commissioners agreeing) has approved the proposed letter to D. Young with the attached changes.
The staff should incorporate the indicated changes and forward the letter to Dr. Young.
(EDO)
(SECY Suspense:
11/16/90)
Attachments:
As stated cc:
Chairman Carr Commissioner Rogers Commicsioner Curtiss Commissioner Remick OGC SECY NOTE:
THI'S SRM, SECY-90-322 AND THE VOTE SHEETS OF COMMISSIONERS ROGERS AND CURTISS WILL DE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE 10 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FINAL SRM
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UNITED STATES
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION usmNotow, o. c. rosss Dr. Alvin !..
Young, Chairman
- ommittee on Interagency Radiation Research and Policy Coordination U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building, Room 321A 14th & Independence Ave., SW.
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Dr. Young:
I am enclosing comments on the CIRRPC draft report, " Naturally Occurring and Accelerator-Produced Radioactive Materials (NARM)," as requested in your fune 6, 1990 letter.
These comments were developed based on a review by and with the approval of Offices of the Commissioners and the Executive Director for Operations of the Nuclear Regulatory Comission.
They therefore represent the Agency position on the draft report.
We recognize the contribution by the CIRRPC working group to date in addressing issues related to regulation of NARM and fully understand that resolution of our comments will entail considerable additional effort.1,S k fer":-d t CIRRPC's involvement in addressing the NARM issue h :ppi;;ieted ;ne.;; dM m ;htbn ;f tH: N rtedt:=:ntt gggy4 Sincerely,
)/or Ondy respose. h i
Bill M. Morris, Director Division of Regulatory Applications k
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
Enclosure:
CIRRPC Report Approval Form cc' Dr. William A. Mills, CIRRPC/0RAU (Oe. did:. W is (44edid,dowh, dat de, y repd in a mort defiGhe mannec 4 issues umt:fied in ne. rdred in CIERft,,
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peudtriy regarding de Anc.kesakn.f pblic. heal 4 g&ty
^^d environmental cont ecn> associated io'dh disccete. soucce.5 4 MAN.
- Swesec, would find it most use614o have. dis we-IHocknt doc. meat caqleked wein de. nc<+ Ouc 4e <ie months.
We greciate.
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l NRC COMMENTS ON DRAFT CIRRPC POLICY REPORT ON " NATURALLY OCCURRING I
AND ACCELERATOR-FRODUCED RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL 5 (NARM)"
General Comment g
<t 9 r::;;;ted th;dhe Comi'. tee on Interagency Radiation Research and Policy Coordination's (CIRRPC's) draft Policy Report on Naturally Occurring and Accelerator-Produced Radioact've Material (NARM be revised to more clearly address the issues that origi1 ally prompted the ommission to refer the NARM issue to CIRRPC.
The report, when properly revised, would provide :rh::::dh
-esse anet+NHR Federal radiation protection programs, in conjunction with State programs, adequately protect the public and the environment.
It would also provide a firmer basis for resolution of NARM issues at the Federal level.
To achieve this, the report must respond in a more definitive manner to items 2 and 3 of the scope of referral regarding the characterization of public health and safety or environmental concerns associated with discrete sources of NARM, Compared to earlier Federal and State efforts to characterize these concerns, the Working Group r'eport presents a more benign view of the radiation hazards associated with possession, use, and disposition of discrete NARM sources.
CIRRPC should either refute the conclusions of these comprehensive studies on this subject or propose specific initiatives to improve public protection / rom the hazards associated with NARM.
In addition, it would be helpful to the Commission if the report discussed the nature of the risks associated with discrete sources of NARM and to the extent feasible, provided estimates of their magnitudes.
Comparison with other risks associated with NRC regulated V
byproduct, source, and speci nuclear materials would be useful in this regard.
WS +k c6ttelo. in the, Coimhssion's BeloW Specific Comments A ddocy Centeen (Ntc) pohy arwl 1.
Page 5, NARM Waste Disposal g
The report states that EPA is developing regulati s to require disposal cf discrete radium sources at low-level waste sites a thorized under the Atomic (AEA) Energy Act[or at special NARM-waste disposal sites.g N: C r heie ser; vtae j
-CPA'; effe,t; t: 00 eire t5:t th::: :::r;;; er; d h;:::d of ::f:1y S ;;;r: e
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As a practical matter, however, discrete NARM sources will probably_be disposed"M of in waste facilities licensed by NRC under the ^t::ic Chin AcQ(cr by AgreementStates).
If disposal in N licensed sites is necessary, there will l
also be a need to establish standards or packaging, waste form, long-term l
isolation, and other aspects of NARM waste dis)osal to assure that these wastes do not constitute a hazard to the healti and safety of the public and to assure that there is no impact on the safe disposal of the AEA wastes at these sites. ^ra ;;;r:2:5 a;;ld b; for CEA te ;;t:blhh 205 ste-de-di a We would appreciate CIRRPC's view on d:th;r this i; 7:::x::d;d er ah;thec:what
-eth:1 alternatives,th:rt Of ke;d;ais the A6uic Ca;ri, ^:t* can be identifiedy
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Page 7, Control of Accelerator-prc duced Radionuclides The report states that radionuclides r roduced by accelerators should be controlled to the same degree of prottetion as required for byproduct materials oM A n3uMwy progeam b 7 W tant b 6%dards l
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e W'ble' the Commission would note that section 3 (a) (2) of the i
' LRWPAA prohibits the federal government from requiring States to l
accept 11 ARM at low-level waste disposal sites, the. Commission i
supports the option to allow safe disposal of these sources in apecial 11 ARM waste disposal facilities.
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hEA under the,$tnk R;r;; Sf. However, the report does not recomend any specific approaches to assure this objective, in addition, the report does not assess whether this level of protection is a goal or is being attained by existing Federal and State regulatory programs.
The report should be revised to assess whether radionuclides produced by accel?rators are controlled to the same degree as byproduct materials under th %h D;r;3 S?. and, if not, to provide specific recomendations for how to mprove these controls to attain this objective.
je 3.
Page 7 Processed Uraniue and Thorium Add at the end of the first paragroph:
...except where uranium and thorium have been processed and are present as a diffuse source in a material such as soil, the NRC has jurisdiction."
4 Pages 8 and 11, Health Concerns The report provides a brief overview of potential health and safety concerns associated with discrete sources of NARM materials. Although the report states that certain types of NARM sources can cause acute and chronic health problems if mishandled, it does not characterize the risks associated with a representative range of NARM materials. This overview is not sufficient to respond to items 2 and 3 of the scope of referral for the NARM study, which included
...[to)characterizethepublichealthandsafetyorenvironmental concerns associated with s.. discrete sources [of NARM]."
Part of the insufficiency appears to have been caused by delays in development of a report by the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD).
Nevertheless, the report concludes that no public health and safety problem has been identified.
This conclusion, however, is based on anecdotal information.
about the risks posed by HARM to the public health and safety rather than on a systematic and comprehensive discussion of the pertinent considerations.
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for example, the eport states that the misadministration rate of NARM radio-nuclides in nucle medicine is apparently less than that of radionuclides licensed under the The report, however, does not provide r....... y the information necessary to support this conclusion. Even NUREG-1310 is insufficient in this regard because its conclusion about misadministration rates of NARM radionuclides was based on incomplete information. Licensees are only required to report certain misadministrations of NARM materials to NRC (e.g., when a NARM radionuclide was inadvertently substituted for a byproduct material).
Consequently, the misadministration data base could underestimate the NARM misadministration rate because it omits reports of the t misadministrations that comonly occur with byproduct materials (ypes of e.g., admin-istration to the wrong patient, administering the wrong dose, administering to the wrong organ or body part).
In addition, the report does not assess the likelihood or significance of excess radiation exposures that may be associated g g with misadministrations of NARM radionuclides.
Overall the Working Group report ^F =
includef a more compre,hensive characterization and discussion of the public health concerns associated with medical misadministrations of NARM radionuclidesp 3 and provide, ne geggga,py idoma%n 4, suppet Ns conc.kdon, 2
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AeA Earlier assessments of NARM, which were pr red by NRC and the CRCPD, relied on anecdotal information to reach conclus ns about the need for additional Federal regulatory control of discrete N M sources.
The Commission concluded in 1988 that such information was not s ficient to merit proposals to Congress for expanding NRC's authority under theg i a En.,3, A;". to regulate discrete sources of NARM.
It was this type of e 2t:M information about the risks posed by discrete NARM sources that motivated the Connission to refer the issue of NARM regulation to CIRRPC for characterization of the risks associated with NARM and appropriate designation of NARM responsibilities.
does not Based on the same types of anecdotal and incomplete info ation, the Working Group report on NARM reaches conclusions about the absen e of health and safety concerns.
Further, the report does not characterize th public health signifi-cance of the mishandling of NARM materials, nor address environmental concerns associated with NARM.
Therefore,thereportaswritten$1spositionofNARMpose f;ile t0 respond to the heart of NRC's referral:
does the possession, use, or risks to humans and the environment sufficient to warrant additional regulatory control at the Federal level.
The report should be revised either to refute the conclusions of the earlier assessments of the risks associated with NARM materials or to propose specific initiatives to improve public protection from the hazards associated with NARM. ir. :dditin, it :=1d be heirful t; t5d
-C = i:;ier, if the r; pert else discvaird ihu anuie ef the riske esseei:t:d.;ith".
1 AR" :=r::: nd te the = te t f:::ible, prveid:d :;timets. vi the - 3 nit.,0;'
of thM e H e h 2 5.
Page 9. Regulatory infrastructure The report notes the existence of a substantial regulatory infrastructure for protecting the public health and safety from radiation sources under the A4eadet MEA
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= Eurg, A;'f and other authorities. The report also states that this infenstruc-ture is necessary and sufficient to control NARM sources. These two obstrvations would seem to suggest that public health and safety could be benefited b,s expanding th; At;;i: E=r;y A;t te praid; NRC with eeth;rity :: ;;r,trei %M-e-ad::the same replatory infrastructure that already exists for other radio-active materials.m However, the report concludes that no such expansion is
. M. *9 ed t' provide a basis and rationalt 4edten+idtk f necessary.
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%4d conclusio[end/rt should 5:pecifically$indicatehowtheexist
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Vinfrastructura is achieving 95: r d
y & :r; W asuff cient level f control of Wavised Serepet hwM i
6.
Page 10, Definition of Discrete Sources Mn /d L
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The first task of the scope of referral to CIRRPC was to "... develop a defini-tion of discrete sources of [NARM) that might be regulated by the Federal.
Government."
In response, the Working Group developed a characterization of f
and "significantly above background levels." discrete sources of NARM which uses the t For example, using this defini-tion, gypsum wall board and other high-volume, low-activity sources could be defined as a discrete source of NARM, yet most Federal agencies would not generally consider such items to be discrete sources, t 5:lic;; th:',fhe report should be revised to provide a definition or characterization of discrete sources of NARM that can be the basis for attaining consistency in future actions and decisions related to NARM regulation.
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7 Page 10, Definition of Regulatory Gaps,gj The second task of the referral to CIRRP was to characterize the nature of public health or environmental concern' that are going unaddressed by Federal controls and to recomend appropriate emedies.
Although we believe the report's assessment of public healt andenvironmentalconcernsfeed[tobe enhanced as noted above, the reportyM ehe b;,;'" Minclud}mpa profile of existing Federal regulatory controls over NARM sources.
In order to identify regulatory gaps, a comprehensive review of what authorities and progranis currently exist to control NARM sources needs to be sumarized.
This review is important to clarify how each agency interprets its authority to regulate NARM and what programs have been implemented to effect appropriate control. Thus, the report should be revised to provide a comprehensive profile of Federal authorities and regulatory programs as the starting point for identifying gaps in the regulation of NARM that require remedies.
If the Working Group concludes that sufficient authority exists but that additional agency actions are warranted to control NARM sources, the report should document to the extent known why the agencieshavenotimplementedappropriatecontrols(e.g.,competingpriorities, higher threshold for regulatory controls) to mitigate or reduce the risks.
8.
Page 11. EPA Authority Revise the last sentence of the first paragraph to read:
" Federal authorities and responsibilities (principally in the EPA) appear..."
9.
Page 11, Possible Results of Future Studies It was noted that the report concludes (page 11) that "no sublic health and safety problem has been identified...." We believe that t11s statement should be modified to 'ecognize the possibility that public health and safety problems may emerge as a result of future studies or through unforeseen developments.
In this regard, we encourage the early completion of the report "on the health and safety problems that are attributable to discrete NARM sources" referred to on page 8 of the report.
10.
Page 12, Recomendations The report provides three recommendations to NRC and the other Federal agencies.
The report's recommendations may need to be revised to reflect the results of further work in responding to our comments.
In addition we urge the Working Group to strive to ensure that the final recomendatlons are specific and, therefore, of practical value to the agencies.
1 For example, recomendation number 3 would be more useful if it identified the types of technical assistance that the States may need, suggest which agency should provide such assistance cepending on the subject of the request, and provide a specific course of action and a schedule for following the progress of the CRCPD's efforts to improve NARM regulation at the State level.
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