United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 99-235

November 3, 1999

NRC COMMENTS ON EPA’S PROPOSED RADIATION STANDARDS

FOR YUCCA MOUNTAIN WASTE REPOSITORY

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has provided

detailed comments on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)

proposed radiation protection standards for a possible future highlevel waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

As the agency responsible for licensing the possible repository,

the NRC believes the standards should have a sound scientific and

technical basis and that the need for the standards adopted should be

fully justified on health and safety grounds.

The NRC objects to the EPA's approach in the proposed rule

because:

(1) EPA’s groundwater protection criteria could become the defacto standards instead of the individual protection limit called for

by the Energy Policy Act of 1992. EPA proposed a separate groundwater

protection limit of 4 millirem per year to an individual. The NRC

staff believes the inclusion of a separate groundwater limit would

result in non-uniform risk levels for individuals and is in excess of

what is needed for protection of public health and safety. Such an

approach will cause confusion and diminish rather than enhance public

confidence that adequately protective limits have been established.

(2) Portions of the proposed standard address how to determine

whether the licensee for the repository is in compliance with the

radiation protection standards. Congress assigned NRC the sole

licensing responsibility for determining whether an application from

the Department of Energy for a license to build and operate a possible

repository at Yucca Mountain complies with pertinent regulations and

standards.

(3) The EPA proposed rule would impose an individual dose limit

of 15 millirem per year. The NRC staff objects to this limit because

it is not necessary for protection of public health and safety and

would provide little, if any, reduction in health risk. The NRC would

prefer and has proposed in 10 CFR Part 63 an individual dose limit of

25 millirem per year using the all-pathways approach that includes

analyses of the groundwater pathway. A 25-millirem individual dose
represents a small fraction of the national and international allpathways public dose limit for an individual of 100 millirem per year,

provides a level of protection that is consistent with NRC and EPA

regulations for related waste management activities (such as lowlevel, high-level and transuranic wastes and spent nuclear fuel), and

is consistent with the 1995 recommendations of the National Academy of

Sciences in a report, “Technical Bases for Yucca Mountain Standards.”

To put these doses into context, a person would receive a 5-millirem

dose from one round-trip cross-country airline flight, while the

average individual dose from background radiation in the United States

is 300 millirem per year.

Copies of the comments NRC sent to EPA will be available for

review and copying for a fee through the NRC Public Document Room at

2120 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20555; telephone: 202/634-

3273. An electronic copy will be available at the NRC's web site at

http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/reports/epa1199.htm.

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