Incorporation of International Standards for Radioactive Waste
into Domestic Safety Regulations
Toshiso Kosako

Nuclear Professional School, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo[Current status of radioactive waste disposal]
Currently in Japan, there are 50-plus nuclear power plants and about 5,000 radioisotope and radiation facilities
in operation. They all generate radioactive waste, and the issue of its disposal cannot be avoided. Under theNuclear Reactor Regulation Law, waste disposal operations primarily by nuclear power plants are carried out in theform of near-surface disposal. Currently, under the Law Concerning the Prevention of Radiation Hazard, plans areunderway to dispose of radioactive waste from radioisotope, radiation and accelerator facilities, which will beundertaken by the JAEA. In addition, plans for sub-surface disposal and the deep geological disposal of high-level
radioactive waste are being developed under the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law. In Japan, radiological protection
standards to ensure radiation safety were discussed between 1975 and 1985. Recommendations were issued by theICRP in 1977, 1990 and 2007, and systematized.
This paper describes how the standards evolved. It also describes dose criteria compatible with other areas ofradiation use from the perspective of the current radiological protection standards and discusses the appropriate
direction to take.
[Radiological protection standards for radioactive waste disposal]
Japan’s only radiation dose criteria for radioactive waste disposal are provided in the December 1987 report ofthe Basic Committee of the Radiation Council “Regulation-Exempt Doses from Near-Surface Disposal ofRadioactive Solid Waste.” These state that the effective dose of the public from potential exposure after the end of
the proposed period of radiological control should be limited to 10 μSv/year. As mentioned above, the ICRP issued
recommendations in 1990 and 2007, whereupon radiological protection standards for radioactive waste disposal
were developed (see the references). All the three sets of radiological protection standards for radioactive waste
disposal recommend a dose limit of 1 mSv/year for the public. With the development of different techniques toensure compliance with this limit, we are moving away from the early approach based on ALARA alone toward
one ensuring compliance with the dose limit based on a target dose constraint of 0.3 mSv/year. This follows theICRP’s policy of emphasizing the optimization of protection, one of the three principles of justification,optimization of radiological protection and dose limitation, which should be applied to medical, radioisotope,
accelerator and other facilities.
[Discussion of the radiological protection standards and the direction to take]As the approach to radiological protection evolved, recommendations in related areas were made following theprimary recommendations in 1977, 1990 and 2007. Adequate consideration was given to the continuity of thelimitation principle, which forms the basis of the standards, and related standards were developed by the IAEA.
Consideration should be given to ensuring the international compatibility of the radiological protection standards
and incorporating the latest knowledge. The Radiation Council started a review of the 1977 report and decided to1

eliminate the regulation-exempt dose of 10 μSv/year and change it to an international criterion of 300 μSv/year(normalization). In addition, the Council decided to apply the criterion to all types of radioactive waste and set anupper limit of 20 mSv to prevent human intrusion into geological repositories. These are in compliance with theSafety Requirements on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (DS354) in the standards system for radioactive waste(WASSC), part of the IAEA’s safety standards. These are also all consistent with the ICRP’s 2007
Recommendations (Publ. 103), and a site release criterion of 300 μSv is specified in IAEA WS-G5.1 based on asimilar philosophy.
Based on the Radiation Council’s decision (revision), there will be discussion of how to incorporate the ICRP’s
Recommendations into domestic laws, the Reactor Regulation Law, and the Radiation Hazard Prevention Law.
The above-mentioned ICRP’s radiological protection standards for radioactive waste adopted this stance in the2007 Recommendations (ICRP Publ. 103). The Radiation Council is discussing the incorporation of the ICRP’s
2007 Recommendations into law and is very likely to recommend that this dose constraint be incorporated. It isinconceivable to apply special radiological protection standards to radioactive waste disposal alone.
References
ICRP Publ. 46 (1985) “Radiation Protection Principles for the Disposal of Solid Radioactive Waste”
ICRP Publ. 77 (1997) “Radiological Protection Policy for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste”
ICRP Publ. 81 (1998) “Radiation Protection Recommendations as Applied to the Disposal of Long-Lived Solid RadioactiveWaste”

2