Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-3503 — NE Code / Chapter 71 / Section 71-3503
View Statute 71-3503
Status: in_force

For purposes of the Radiation Control Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Radiation means ionizing radiation and nonionizing radiation as follows:

(a) Ionizing radiation means gamma rays, X-rays, alpha and beta particles, high-speed electrons, neutrons, protons, and other atomic or nuclear particles or rays but does not include sound or radio waves or visible, infrared, or ultraviolet light; and

(b) Nonionizing radiation means (i) any electromagnetic radiation which can be generated during the operations of electronic products to such energy density levels as to present a biological hazard to occupational and public health and safety and the environment, other than ionizing electromagnetic radiation, and (ii) any sonic, ultrasonic, or infrasonic waves which are emitted from an electronic product as a result of the operation of an electronic circuit in such product and to such energy density levels as to present a biological hazard to occupational and public health and safety and the environment;

(2) Radioactive material means any material, whether solid, liquid, or gas, which emits ionizing radiation spontaneously. Radioactive material includes, but is not limited to, accelerator-produced material, byproduct material, naturally occurring material, source material, and special nuclear material;

(3) Radiation-generating equipment means any manufactured product or device, component part of such a product or device, or machine or system which during operation can generate or emit radiation except devices which emit radiation only from radioactive material;

(4) Sources of radiation means any radioactive material, any radiation-generating equipment, or any device or equipment emitting or capable of emitting radiation or radioactive material;

(5) Undesirable radiation means radiation in such quantity and under such circumstances as determined from time to time by rules and regulations adopted and promulgated by the department;

(6) Person means any individual, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private institution, group, agency, political subdivision of this state, any other state or political subdivision or agency thereof, and any legal successor, representative, agent, or agency of the foregoing;

(7) Registration means registration with the department pursuant to the Radiation Control Act;

(8) Department means the Department of Health and Human Services;

(9) Administrator means the administrator of radiation control designated pursuant to section 71-3504 ;

(10) Electronic product means any manufactured product, device, assembly, or assemblies of such products or devices which, during operation in an electronic circuit, can generate or emit a physical field of radiation;

(11) License means:

(a) A general license issued pursuant to rules and regulations adopted and promulgated by the department without the filing of an application with the department or the issuance of licensing documents to particular persons to transfer, acquire, own, possess, or use quantities of or devices or equipment utilizing radioactive materials;

(b) A specific license, issued to a named person upon application filed with the department pursuant to the Radiation Control Act and rules and regulations adopted and promulgated pursuant to the act, to use, manufacture, produce, transfer, receive, acquire, own, or possess quantities of or devices or equipment utilizing radioactive materials; or

(c) A license issued to a radon measurement specialist, radon mitigation specialist, radon measurement business, or radon mitigation business;

(12) Byproduct material means:

(a) Any radioactive material, except special nuclear material, yielded in or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process of producing or utilizing special nuclear material;

(b) The tailings or wastes produced by the extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium from any ore processed primarily for its source material content, including discrete surface wastes resulting from uranium or thorium solution extraction processes. Underground ore bodies depleted by such solution extraction operations do not constitute byproduct material;

(c)(i) Any discrete source of radium-226 that is produced, extracted, or converted after extraction for use for a commercial, medical, or research activity; or

(ii) Any material that (A) has been made radioactive by use of a particle accelerator and (B) is produced, extracted, or converted after extraction for use for a commercial, medical, or research activity; and

(d) Any discrete source of naturally occurring radioactive material, other than source material, that:

(i) The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in consultation with the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Secretary of Energy, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, and the head of any other appropriate federal agency, determines would pose a threat similar to the threat posed by a discrete source of radium-226 to the public health and safety or the common defense and security; and

(ii) Is extracted or converted after extraction for use in a commercial, medical, or research activity;

(13) Source material means:

(a) Uranium or thorium or any combination thereof in any physical or chemical form; or

(b) Ores which contain by weight one-twentieth of one percent or more of uranium, thorium, or any combination thereof. Source material does not include special nuclear material;

(14) Special nuclear material means:

(a) Plutonium, uranium 233, or uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or in the isotope 235 and any other material that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission pursuant to the provisions of section 51 of the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, determines to be special nuclear material but does not include source material; or

(b) Any material artificially enriched by any material listed in subdivision (14)(a) of this section but does not include source material;

(15) Users of sources of radiation means:

(a) Physicians using radioactive material or radiation-generating equipment for human use;

(b) Natural persons using radioactive material or radiation-generating equipment for education, research, or development purposes;

(c) Natural persons using radioactive material or radiation-generating equipment for manufacture or distribution purposes;

(d) Natural persons using radioactive material or radiation-generating equipment for industrial purposes; and

(e) Natural persons using radioactive material or radiation-generating equipment for any other similar purpose;

(16) Civil penalty means any monetary penalty levied on a licensee or registrant because of violations of statutes, rules, regulations, licenses, or registration certificates but does not include criminal penalties;

(17) Closure means all activities performed at a waste handling, processing, management, or disposal site, such as stabilization and contouring, to assure that the site is in a stable condition so that only minor custodial care, surveillance, and monitoring are necessary at the site following termination of licensed operation;

(18) Decommissioning means final operational activities at a facility to dismantle site structures, to decontaminate site surfaces and remaining structures, to stabilize and contain residual radioactive material, and to carry out any other activities to prepare the site for postoperational care;

(19) Disposal means the permanent isolation of low-level radioactive waste pursuant to the Radiation Control Act and rules and regulations adopted and promulgated pursuant to such act;

(20) Generate means to produce low-level radioactive waste when used in relation to low-level radioactive waste;

(21) High-level radioactive waste means:

(a) Irradiated reactor fuel;

(b) Liquid wastes resulting from the operation of the first cycle solvent extraction system or equivalent and the concentrated wastes from subsequent extraction cycles or the equivalent in a facility for reprocessing irradiated reactor fuel; and

(c) Solids into which such liquid wastes have been converted;

(22) Low-level radioactive waste means radioactive waste not defined as high-level radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, or byproduct material as defined in subdivision (12)(b) of this section;

(23) Management of low-level radioactive waste means the handling, processing, storage, reduction in volume, disposal, or isolation of such waste from the biosphere in any manner;

(24) Source material mill tailings or mill tailings means the tailings or wastes produced by the extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium from any ore processed primarily for its source material content, including discrete surface wastes resulting from underground solution extraction processes, but not including underground ore bodies depleted by such solution extraction processes;

(25) Source material milling means any processing of ore, including underground solution extraction of unmined ore, primarily for the purpose of extracting or concentrating uranium or thorium therefrom and which results in the production of source material and source material mill tailings;

(26) Spent nuclear fuel means irradiated nuclear fuel that has undergone at least one year of decay since being used as a source of energy in a power reactor. Spent nuclear fuel includes the special nuclear material, byproduct material, source material, and other radioactive material associated with fuel assemblies;

(27) Transuranic waste means radioactive waste material containing alpha-emitting radioactive elements, with radioactive half-lives greater than five years, having an atomic number greater than 92 in concentrations in excess of one hundred nanocuries per gram;

(28) Licensed practitioner means a person licensed to practice medicine, dentistry, podiatry, chiropractic, osteopathic medicine and surgery, or as an osteopathic physician;

(29) X-ray system means an assemblage of components for the controlled production of X-rays, including, but not limited to, an X-ray high-voltage generator, an X-ray control, a tube housing assembly, a beam-limiting device, and the necessary supporting structures. Additional components which function with the system are considered integral parts of the system; and

(30) Deliberate misconduct means an intentional act or omission by a person that (a) would intentionally cause a licensee, registrant, or applicant for a license or registration to be in violation of any rule, regulation, or order of or any term, condition, or limitation of any license or registration issued by the department under the Radiation Control Act or (b) constitutes an intentional violation of a requirement, procedure, instruction, contract, purchase order, or policy under the Radiation Control Act by a licensee, a registrant, an applicant for a license or registration, or a contractor or subcontractor of a licensee, registrant, or applicant for a license or registration.

Laws 1963, c. 406, § 3, p. 1297;

Laws 1975, LB 157, § 3;

Laws 1978, LB 814, § 3;

Laws 1984, LB 716, § 3;

Laws 1987, LB 390, § 4;

Laws 1989, LB 342, § 32;

Laws 1990, LB 1064, § 17;

Laws 1993, LB 121, § 434;

Laws 1993, LB 536, § 83;

Laws 1995, LB 406, § 42;

Laws 1996, LB 1044, § 651;

Laws 1996, LB 1201, § 1;

Laws 2002, LB 93, § 12;

Laws 2002, LB 1021, § 71;

Laws 2005, LB 301, § 42;

Laws 2006, LB 994, § 103;

Laws 2007, LB296 § 566;

Laws 2007, LB463, § 1209;

Laws 2008, LB928, § 23;

Laws 2012, LB794, § 1;

Laws 2019, LB302, § 89;

Laws 2025, LB317, § 376.