Press Release-05-153, NRC Considering Request by Minnesota to Be an Agreement State
| ML053130110 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 11/09/2005 |
| From: | Office of Public Affairs |
| To: | |
| Category:Press Release | |
| References | |
| Press Release-05-153 | |
| Download: ML053130110 (2) | |
Text
NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.05-153 November 9, 2005 NRC CONSIDERING REQUEST BY MINNESOTA TO BE AN AGREEMENT STATE The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a request from the governor of Minnesota to assume part of the NRCs regulatory authority over certain nuclear materials in the state. If the request is accepted, Minnesota will become the 34th state to sign such an agreement with the NRC.
Under the proposed agreement, the NRC would transfer to Minnesota the responsibility for licensing, rulemaking, inspection and enforcement activities for: (1) radioactive materials produced as a byproduct of processes related to the production or utilization of special nuclear material (SNM);
(2) source material (uranium and thorium); and (3) SNM in quantities not sufficient to support a nuclear chain reaction.
If the agreement is approved, approximately 167 NRC licenses, many of them for medical and industrial uses, would be transferred to Minnesotas jurisdiction. The NRC would retain jurisdiction over a number of activities identified in 10 CFR Part 150, including regulation of commercial nuclear power plants and federal agencies using certain nuclear material in the state. In addition, NRC would retain authority for the review, evaluation and approval of sealed sources and devices containing certain nuclear materials within the state.
An announcement of the proposed agreement, along with a summary of the NRC staffs draft assessment of the Minnesota program, will be published for comment once a week for four consecutive weeks in the Federal Register. Comments should be sent to Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Division of Freedom of Information and Publications Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Copies of the proposed agreement, the governors request and supporting documents, as well as the NRC staffs assessment are available through the NRCs Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC Public Document Room staff at 301-415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209, or by sending an e-mail message to pdr@nrc.gov. These documents are also available for public inspection at the NRC Public Document Room at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
Thirty-three other states have previously signed such agreements with NRC. They are:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.