NRC APPROVES NEW ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS FOR 

LICENSEES TO AVOID FUTURE LEGACY SITES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a final rule designed to prevent future 

“legacy sites” with insufficient funds for decommissioning by requiring licensees to minimize the 

introduction of residual radioactivity at their sites during operations.

A legacy site is a facility with an owner who cannot complete decommissioning work for 

technical or financial reasons. The rule will require licensees to keep survey records of residual 

radioactivity, including in the subsurface soil and groundwater, with records important for 

decommissioning. It will also require certain licensees to report additional details in their 

decommissioning cost estimates and amend some financial assurance mechanisms for 

decommissioning planning.

Facilities that process large quantities of material, especially in liquid form, have the 

potential for significant environmental contamination due to the scale of their operations. Leaks 

from these facilities can lead to significant radioactive contamination of the subsurface soil and

groundwater, even though the radiation doses from these releases are well below annual regulatory 

limits for public and occupational exposure.

In addition, the high costs of disposing radioactive material offsite may lead licensees to 

store more waste onsite, increasing the potential for subsurface radioactive contamination and 

significantly higher decommissioning costs.

Licensees are currently required to perform surveys to verify that radioactive effluent 

releases are below regulatory requirements and do not pose public health hazards. However, the 

NRC believes that existing regulations are not clear enough concerning subsurface contamination 

and require interpretation to apply to long-term environmental conditions. Surveys have rarely been 

performed to assess the radiological hazard of chronic releases and subsurface contamination 

because these are not considered effluent releases and they do not cause immediate exposure either 

to workers or the public approaching regulatory limits.

The final rule will also require more detailed reporting by licensees and will tighten NRC 

control over certain financial instruments set aside to cover eventual decommissioning costs.

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 10-213 November 30, 2010
The new regulations will take effect 18 months following publication in the Federal 

Register. The rule must be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget before publication.

A proposed rule detailing these new requirements was published in the Federal Register on 

Jan. 22, 2008. The agency received 35 comment letters on the proposed rule from states, licensees, 

industry organizations, environmental advocacy groups, and a member of the public. The public 

comments prompted several changes in the final rule, which are detailed in the forthcoming Federal 

Register notice.

The final rule, as sent by the agency staff to the Commission for approval, is available on the 

NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/secys/2009/secy2009-

0042/2009-0042scy.html. The Commission’s Staff Requirements Memorandum, issued Nov. 30 and 

directing some changes before publication, will be posted at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/commission/srm/2009/ under SECY-09-0042. 

###

NOTE: Anyone wishing to take photos or use a camera to record any portion of a NRC meeting should contact 

the Office of Public Affairs beforehand.

News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: 

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE 

link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.