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. 96-183 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Wednesday, December 11, 1996)

NRC REVISES REGULATIONS ON

RELEASE OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulation

that governs release of radioactive materials from NRC-licensed

facilities other than nuclear power plants.

The changes are expected to eliminate unnecessary dual

regulation by both the NRC and the Environmental Protection

Agency by providing a basis for EPA to rescind its regulations

for NRC non-reactor licensees.

The revisions will require affected NRC licensees to

constrain air emissions of radioactive materials from their

facilities so that the highest radiation dose an individual

member of the public would be likely to receive as a result of

those emissions is 10 millirems per year. This proposal is part

of NRC's program to maintain radiation doses from licensed

facilities to levels that are as low as is reasonably achievable.

NRC requires its licensees to ensure that the dose to an

individual member of the public does not exceed 100 millirems per

year from all pathways (including air emissions). The Commission

believes that these current regulations provide adequate

protection of the public health and safety. The revision will

ensure that air emissions are maintained at a very low level,

while eliminating dual regulation.

Under the NRC's revised regulations, if the 10 millirem per

year constraint level is exceeded, the licensee will have to

report to the NRC and take prompt and appropriate corrective

action to avoid recurrence.

The l977 amendments to the Clean Air Act required EPA to

consider whether radioactive materials should be identified as a

hazardous air pollutant and, if so, to adopt standards to limit

their emissions. EPA decided that radioactive materials are a

hazardous pollutant and issued standards for their emission in
air on October 31, 1989. Later that year, Congress enacted

amendments to the Clean Air Act that said (in the Simpson

amendment) that EPA need not issue standards for emissions of

radioactive material from facilities licensed by the NRC if the

EPA Administrator determines that the regulatory program

established by the NRC provides "an ample margin of safety to

protect the public health."

EPA stayed the effectiveness of its regulations for a while,

but its regulations are now in effect for licensees other than

nuclear power plants, which means that NRC-licensed facilities

are currently subject to dual regulation of air emissions by both

the NRC and EPA. (For nuclear power plants, EPA has rescinded

regulation of air emissions, based on NRC regulations already in

place for power reactors and a history of more than 20 years of

reported air emissions well below 10 millirems per year for these

plants.) The EPA regulations state that emissions of radioactive

materials to air from NRC-licensed facilities must not exceed

amounts that would cause any member of the public to receive a

radiation dose of 10 millirems per year.

EPA conducted two studies of air emissions from NRC nonreactor licensees. For the more than 500 licensees evaluated,

none exceeded 10 millirems per year. On the basis of these

studies, it is evident that constraining air emissions of

radioactive material to 10 millirems for the maximally exposed

member of the public is reasonably achievable.

A proposed rule on this subject was published in the Federal

Register on December 13 of last year. Changes made as a result

of comments received are described in yesterday's edition of the

Federal Register.

The revisions will be effective on January 9.

###