Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 105 CMR - DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH › Title 105 CMR 120.000 - The Control of Radiation › QUALITY ASSURANCE › Section 120.803 - Definitions

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
As used in
				  105
				  CMR 120.800 the following definitions
				  apply:
Accident
means any event arising
				  from the storage, treatment, recycling or disposal of waste that causes a
				  discharge or dispersal of waste or elements contained in the waste from its
				  intended place of confinement.
Active Maintenance
means any
				  significant activity needed during the period of institutional control to
				  maintain a reasonable assurance that the performance objectives in
				  105
				  CMR 120.811 and
				  120.812
				  are met. The term includes major remedial action such as replacement of
				  disposal unit barrier. Active maintenance does not include custodial activities
				  such as repair of fencing, repair or replacement of monitoring equipment,
				  revegetation, minor additions to soil cover, minor repair of disposal unit
				  barriers, and general disposal site upkeep such as mowing grass.
Adverse Effect
means an injurious
				  impact which is significant in relation to the public health, safety, or
				  environmental interest being protected.
Affected Community
means a
				  community, other than a site community, which is identified in an environmental
				  impact report prepared pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 30, and can be
				  expected to experience significant impacts as a result of the location,
				  development, operation, closure, postclosure observation and maintenance or
				  institutional control of a facility.
ALARA
[acronym for "as low as
				  reasonably achievable"] means making every reasonable effort to maintain
				  exposures to radiation as far below the dose limits in
				  105 CMR
				  120.200 as is practical consistent with the
				  purpose for which the licensed activity is undertaken, taking into account the
				  state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to state of
				  technology, the economics of improvements in relation to benefits to the public
				  health and safety, and other societal and socioeconomic considerations, and in
				  relation to utilization of nuclear energy and licensed materials in the public
				  interest.
Board
means the Low-Level
				  Radioactive Waste Management Board established in M.G.L. c. 111H, §
				  2.
Buffer Zone
means a parcel of land
				  which is an integral part of a facility that is controlled by the licensee and
				  acts as a surrounding boundary to the facility.
Chelating Agent
means certain
				  organic compounds capable of forming (multiple) coordinate bonds with metals
				  through two or more atoms of the organic compound, typically resulting in
				  enhanced thermodynamic stability in solution and greatly altered behavior of
				  the metal ions. Examples include amine polycarboxylic acids
				  (
e.g.
, EDTA, DTPA), and polycarboxylic acids
				  (
e.g.
, citric acid, carbolic acid, and gluconic acid).
Chief Executive Officer
means the
				  city manager in any city having a city manager, the mayor in any other city,
				  the town manager in any town having a town manager, the chairman of the Board
				  of Selectmen in any other town.
Closure
means the permanent
				  termination of low-level radioactive waste acceptance at a facility, including
				  closure prior to the scheduled closing date, and the implementation of a
				  closure plan.
Closure Plan
means the plan,
				  required as a condition of a facility license, prepared pursuant to regulations
				  adopted under M.G.L. c. 111H, § 16, to assure safe facility closure after
				  operation.
Commencement of Construction
means
				  initiation of site alteration or physical on-site construction activities. The
				  term does not mean site exploration, necessary roads for site exploration,
				  borings to determine foundation conditions, or other preconstruction monitoring
				  or testing to establish background information related to the suitability of
				  the site or the protection of environmental values.
Community
means a city or town of
				  the Commonwealth.
Community Supervisory Committee
means a committee, established pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 21, to
				  facilitate the participation of a community, in which a candidate site is
				  located, in the activities established by M.G.L. c. 111H.
Comprehensive Operating Contract
means a contract entered into by an Operator and the Board pursuant to M.G.L.
				  c. 111H, § 33.
Container
means the primary vessel,
				  exclusive of other reusable shielding or other packaging materials, in which
				  waste is placed and received for treatment, storage or disposal; or the vessel
				  into which waste is repackaged for storage or disposal and potential
				  retrieval.
Days
means calendar days; provided
				  that in computing time periods such periods shall exclude the day of the event
				  which starts the period running, and further provided that if the last day of a
				  period falls on a Sunday, legal holiday or declared state of emergency day,
				  such period shall be extended to the close of business on the next business
				  day.
Department
means Department of
				  Public Health.
Department Environmental Monitoring
				  Program
means a monitoring program established by the Department,
				  after consultation with the department of environmental protection and the
				  board of health of each site community, for the purpose of collecting and
				  analyzing environmental data prior to construction and throughout the
				  construction, operation, closure, post-closure observation and maintenance and
				  institutional control of a facility.
Detailed Site Characterization
means
				  the on-site investigatory and analytical step of site selection established in
				  M.G.L. c. 111H, § 23 and conducted prior to the selection of any superior
				  site.
Development
means all activities
				  undertaken with respect to a low-level radioactive waste facility during the
				  period commencing with the selection of any superior site pursuant to M.G.L. c.
				  111H, § 23 and continuing until the commencement of facility operation
				  pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 39.
Disposal
means the isolation of
				  low-level radioactive waste from the biosphere inhabited by human beings and
				  their food chains.
Disposal Unit
means a discrete
				  portion of a facility into which waste is emplaced for disposal.
Dose Modeling Program
means a
				  computational program for converting measured or expected radioactivity to dose
				  equivalent for the relevant critical organ(s) which employs a formula selected
				  by the facility operator and approved by the Department.
Emplacement of Waste
means the
				  placement of waste into a disposal unit for disposal.
Engineered Barrier
means a manmade
				  structure or device that is intended to improve a facility's ability to meet
				  the performance objectives set forth in
				  105
				  CMR 120.811 through
				  120.814.
Facility
means a parcel of land,
				  together with the structures, equipment and improvements thereon or appurtenant
				  thereto, which, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, is being developed, is used, or has
				  been used for the treatment, storage or disposal of low-level radioactive
				  waste; but does not include any property used for temporary storage of
				  low-level radioactive waste in sealed containers by a broker.
Facility License
means a license to
				  operate a facility issued by the Department pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, §
				  31.
Generator
means a person, including
				  a broker, who produces low-level radioactive waste.
Ground Water
means water below the
				  land surface in a saturated zone, including perched ground water.
Inadvertent Intruder
means a person
				  who, without regulatory authorization, enters upon the site of a facility after
				  closure to engage in normal activities.
Institutional Control
means the
				  continued observation, monitoring and care of a facility following transfer of
				  the facility license from the Operator to the Board.
Institutional Control Account
means
				  an account within the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Trust Fund established in
				  M.G.L. c. 111H, § 41 for the purpose of paying institutional control costs
				  pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, §§ 9 and 47.
Intruder Barrier
means a sufficient
				  layer of material surrounding waste that inhibits contact with the waste and
				  helps to ensure that radiation exposures to an inadvertent intruder will meet
				  the performance objectives set forth in
				  105
				  CMR 120.800, or engineered structures that
				  provide equivalent protection to the inadvertent intruder.
Low-level Radioactive Waste
means
				  radioactive material that:
(1) is neither high-level waste, nor spent nuclear fuel, nor
				  by-product material as defined in Section 11(e)(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of
				  1954, as amended,
				  42
				  U.S.C. §
										2014(e); and
(2) is classified by the Federal Government as low-level
				  radioactive waste, but not including waste which remains a Federal
				  responsibility, as designated in Section 3(b) of the Low-Level Radioactive
				  Waste Policy Act, as amended,
				  42
				  U.S.C. §
										2021c(b), as
				  in effect as of December 8, 1987.
Low-level Radioactive Waste Trust
				  Fund
means a trust fund established pursuant to M.G.L. c. 10,
				  § 35H which shall consist of surcharges collected from users of the
				  low-level radioactive waste facility in an amount determined by the board on an
				  annual basis, which shall be used to meet the obligations set forth in M.G.L.
				  c. 111H, §§ 9 and 47.
Manifest
means a detailed record of
				  the characteristics and quantities of packaged waste as presented for
				  transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal which usually accompanies waste
				  transfers for these purposes.
Mass Wasting
means the movement of
				  rock or soil material under the influence of gravity either as the movement of
				  the product of weathering down a slope or as mass movement of rock or soil
				  along joint planes or bedding planes. Mass wasting includes but is not limited
				  to creep, mud flows, earth flow, soil flow, rock avalanche, landslide, landslip
				  and slumping.
Mixed Waste
means low-level
				  radioactive waste containing material that either:
(1) is listed in
				  310 CMR
				  30.131 through
				  30.136;
				  or
(2) causes the waste to exhibit any of the characteristics
				  identified in
				  310 CMR
				  30.120.
Monitoring
means observing and
				  making measurements to provide data on a facility, its site, its surrounding
				  environment, and its health safety and environmental impacts.
NARM
means any naturally occurring
				  or accelerator-produced radioactive material as defined in
				  105 CMR
				  120.001. It does not include byproduct,
				  source, or special nuclear material.
Neighboring Community
means a
				  community, other than a site community, which, according to the most recent
				  federal census, has at least 20% of its population residing within three miles
				  of any superior site.
Operation
means the control,
				  supervision or implementation of the actual physical activities involved in the
				  acceptance, storage, treatment, disposal or monitoring of low-level radioactive
				  waste at a facility and the maintenance of the facility and any other
				  responsibilities of the operation pertaining to the facility.
Operator
means a person designated
				  in accordance with the procedures established in M.G.L. c. 111H, §§
				  22 and 27 to develop and operate a low-level radioactive waste facility.
Operator Environmental Monitoring
				  Program
means a monitoring program conducted by the Operator for
				  the purpose of collecting and analyzing environmental data during the
				  preoperational, operational, closure, post-closure observation and maintenance,
				  and institutional control stages of a facility.
Person
means any agency or political
				  subdivision of the federal government or the commonwealth or of any state, any
				  public or private corporation or authority, individual, firm, joint stock
				  company, partnership, association, trust, estate, institution or other entity,
				  and any officer, employee or agent of such person, and any group of such
				  persons.
Post-closure Observation and
				  Maintenance
means the active monitoring and maintenance of a
				  facility which has been closed in preparation for transfer of the facility's
				  license from the Operator to the Board.
Public Interest
means the common
				  welfare, convenience, benefit and necessity of the people of the Commonwealth,
				  including public health, safety and the environment.
Public Meeting
means a public
				  hearing, satisfying the requirements of M.G.L. c. 30A, § 2, in which an
				  agency presents information, responds to inquiries and hears testimony of
				  interested persons.
Radioactivity
means the
				  transformation of unstable atomic nuclei with the emission of radiation.
Radionuclide
means an isotope that
				  eventually undergoes spontaneous disintegration, with the emission of
				  radiation.
Radioactive Material
means any
				  solid, liquid, or gas which emits radiation spontaneously.
Retrieval
means the recovery of
				  waste in an intact container.
Retrievability
means the ability to
				  recover waste in an intact container without substantial destruction of the
				  engineered barriers surrounding the waste containers.
Shallow Land Burial
means a land
				  disposal method that relies on the site's natural characteristics as the
				  primary barrier for isolation of the waste.
Site
means a parcel of land which,
				  pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111, §§ 3, 5M, 5N, 5O, and 5P is being
				  considered, developed or used or has been used as a location for a
				  facility.
Site Community
means the community
				  in which is located all or any part of any superior site.
Source Minimization
means minimizing
				  the volume of radioactivity of low-level radioactive waste prior to its
				  generation by such methods as:
(1) avoiding unnecessary contamination of items during the
				  use of radioactive materials;
(2) carefully segregating radioactive waste from
				  non-radioactive trash; or
(3) substituting non-radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes
				  with shorter half-lives where practicable.
Stability
means structural
				  stability.
Storage
means the holding of
				  low-level radioactive waste for treatment or disposal.
Subsidence
means the process by
				  which the earth's surface sinks, either rapidly or slowly, with little or no
				  horizontal motion.
Superior Site
means any site
				  selected by the Board, after detailed site characterization, pursuant to M.G.L.
				  c. 111H, § 23.
Surveillance
means observation of a
				  facility for purposes of visual detection of the need for maintenance or
				  custodial care, evidence of intrusion, or compliance with other license or
				  regulatory requirements.
Temporary Closure
means the
				  nonpermanent termination of low-level waste acceptance at a facility prior to
				  its scheduled closing date.
Treatment
means any method,
				  technique, or process including source minimization, volume minimization, and
				  storage for decay, designed to change the physical, radioactive, chemical, or
				  biological characteristics or composition of low-level radioactive waste in
				  order to render such waste safer for management, amenable for recovery,
				  convertible to another usable material or reduced in volume.
Violation
means any act or failure
				  to act which constitutes or results in one or more of the following:
(1) engaging in any business or other activity without a
				  license or approval whenever engaging in such business or activity requires
				  such license or approval.
(2) engaging in any activity prohibited by, or not in
				  compliance with, any statute, by-law, ordinance or regulation.
(3) not fully doing, or not doing in timely fashion, anything
				  required by any statute, by-law, ordinance or regulation.
Volume Minimization
means treatment
				  of low-level radioactive waste after its generation in order to minimize the
				  physical dimensions of the waste and the. space required for disposal.
Waste
means low-level radioactive
				  waste.
Waste Form
means those physical and
				  chemical characteristics of waste of primary importance in influencing its
				  stability in a disposal environment.
Waste Management Area
means that
				  portion of a facility where low-level radioactive waste has been, is being or
				  will be treated, stored or disposed of.