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. 97-083 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Wednesday, May 21, 1997)

NRC APPROVES MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE RADIATION LEVELS

FOR LICENSE TERMINATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an amendment

to its regulations to establish maximum permissible radiation

levels when a nuclear facility permanently shuts down, is

released for other uses, and the license is terminated.

The new rules will require licensees of permanently shutdown

facilities to reduce remaining radioactivity to sufficiently low

levels to permit the license to be terminated safely. Release of

the property may be either:

ˇ Unrestricted, in which case it could be used for any

purpose, or

ˇ Restricted, so that it could not be used for certain

purposes, such as residential housing.

The Commission believes that the new standards are

consistent with specific recommendations of both national and

international bodies tasked with the development of guidance for

radiation protection; are appropriately based on risk, costbenefit, and socio-economic standards; provide the needed

flexibility to accommodate site-specific conditions; and are

sufficiently conservative to ensure protection of public health

and safety and the environment.

Unrestricted Release

Under the new regulations, a site may be released for

unrestricted use if the radiation dose from contamination

remaining on the property will be as far below 25 millirems per

year as is reasonably achievable. (Twenty-five millirems may be

compared to a dose of about 5 millirems of background radiation

from one round-trip cross-country airline flight; 50 millirems

average per year from medical examinations; and 300 millirems per

year average in the United States from natural background

radiation.)
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Restricted Release

The new regulations permit release of a site for restricted

use provided that the dose from contamination remaining on site

is as low as is reasonably achievable and that legally

enforceable institutional controls (such as deed restrictions)

will ensure that the dose does not exceed 25 millirems per year.

In addition, if a site is released for restricted use, the

licensee must provide financial arrangements to allow an

independent third party to assume and carry out responsibilities

for any necessary control and maintenance of the site.

Further, a licensee that intends to decommission by

restricting use of the site must seek advice--from individuals

and institutions in the community who may be affected by the

decommissioning--on whether the provisions for institutional

controls proposed by the licensee (1) will provide reasonable

assurance that the radiation dose from contamination remaining on

site will not exceed 25 millirems per year, (2) will be

enforceable, and (3) will not impose undue burdens on the local

community or other affected parties.

In obtaining this advice, the licensee must provide for

participation by a broad cross-section of community interests,

provide an opportunity for a comprehensive discussion on the

issues by participants, and make public a summary of the results

of such discussions.

The Commission expects that institutional controls will be

very effective in keeping doses to levels below 25 millirems per

year. Nevertheless the Commission has included an additional

level of protection in the rule to protect against the situation

where the 25-millirems-per-year level could be exceeded by

requiring that licensees provide reasonable assurance that, if

the institutional controls were no longer in effect, the maximum

yearly radiation dose from contamination remaining on site would

not exceed 100 millirems per year, and be as low as is reasonably

achievable.

Licensees in rare circumstances could also propose that, in

the event institutional controls were no longer in effect, the

residual radioactivity could be as high as 500 millirems per

year. However, licensees who propose to use the 500-millirem

criterion must (1) demonstrate that further reductions in

remaining radioactivity are not technically achievable, would be

prohibitively expensive, or would result in net public or

environmental harm; (2) make provision for durable institutional

controls, such as engineered barriers or government control or

ownership; and (3) provide sufficient financial resources to

enable an independent third party to carry out periodic rechecks
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of the site at least every 5 years to make sure that the

institutional controls remain in place, and to assume and carry

out responsibilities for any necessary controls and maintenance

of those controls.

Alternate Criteria for License Termination

The Commission expects the vast preponderance of licensees

to reduce residual radioactivity to levels that meet the new

criteria for unrestricted or restricted release. However, the

Commission is concerned about the possible presence of certain

difficult sites that could present unique decommissioning

problems.

Because it is preferable to have provisions in the rule to

deal with these sites rather than have licensees seek an

exemption process outside the rule, the rule contains provisions

under which the Commission may terminate a license using

alternate criteria, greater than 25 millirems per year, if the

licensee provides assurance that public health and safety would

continue to be protected, and that it was unlikely that the

radiation dose from all potential man-made sources combined would

be more than 100 millirems per year. The licensee must also

place restrictions on site use to the extent practical and reduce

the radiation dose to levels that are as low as reasonably

achievable.

The Commission expects the use of alternate criteria to be

confined to rare situations. To ensure that this is the case,

the Commission is requiring that licensees who propose to use

alternate criteria must seek advice or comment from affected

parties and, as in the case where restricted release is sought,

provide for participation by representatives of a broad crosssection of community interests who may be affected by the

decommissioning, an opportunity for a comprehensive, collective

discussion on the issues, and a publicly available summary of the

results of all such discussions.

In addition, the use of alternate criteria to terminate a

license will require the approval of the Commission, after

consideration of NRC staff recommendations that address any

comments provided by the Environmental Protection Agency and by

the public.

Public Input

To provide ample opportunities for public comment, when the

Commission receives a license termination or decommissioning

plan, or a proposal for restricted release of a site or release

using alternate criteria, the agency will publish a notice in the

Federal Register. In addition, it will provide local
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notification via a notice in local newspapers, letters to state

or local organizations, or other appropriate means. It will also

notify the Environmental Protection Agency, appropriate local and

state governments and Indian Nations and solicit their comments.

Specific additional requirements for public input are

described above for the restricted use and alternate criteria

cases.

Proposed and Final Rule

A proposed rule on this subject was published for public

comment on August 22, 1994. The full text of the final rule and

a description of specific changes made as a result of the

comments received on the proposed rule, and additional NRC

analysis, will be contained in a Federal Register notice to be

published soon.

The Commission did not adopt a separate groundwater

protection standard, as recommended by the Environmental

Protection Agency. NRC agrees with the need to control exposures

from drinking groundwater that is potentially contaminated and

agrees that the environmental integrity of the nation's

groundwater needs to be protected. However, NRC has concluded

that protection of public health and safety in the use of this

valuable resource is achieved by limiting exposure to persons

from all potential pathways of exposure (i.e., radiation from the

ground, eating food from soil or fish from surface water,

inhalation of dust, etc.), including the groundwater pathway, to

as far below 25 millirems per year as is reasonably achievable

and that imposition of a separate standard for groundwater would

not provide any significant enhancement of public health and

safety and is therefore unnecessary.

Yesterday Shirley Ann Jackson, Chairman of the NRC, met with

Fred Hansen, Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA), to discuss the proposed final rule. At that

meeting, she discussed the features of the rule, and NRC's

position on the adequacy of the 25-millirems-per-year all

pathways standard, the concept of "as low as is reasonably

achievable" (ALARA) included in the NRC's rule, and the NRC's

position that, in light of the all pathways standard and ALARA,

there is no need for a separate groundwater standard. Hansen

expressed EPA's interest in continuing discussions with NRC

regarding timely notice to EPA of proposed NRC license

termination in some specific categories of cases. The Commission

has agreed to continue a dialogue with EPA following finalization

of the rule.

The new cleanup criteria for decommissioning will not apply

to sites already covered by a license termination or
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decommissioning plan approved previously by the Commission or

approved within 24 months of the effective date of the rule

(which will be announced in the Federal Register).

The final rules that the Commission has promulgated will

generally apply to most NRC licensees and to most licensees

regulated by Agreement States (which are states that have

assumed, by mutual agreement, part of the NRC's regulatory

authority). An Agreement State may implement more stringent

standards if it finds a need to impose such standards for local

conditions.

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