New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 6 - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION › Chapter IV - QUALITY SERVICES › Subchapter C - RADIATION › Part 380 - Prevent and Control of Environmental Pollution by Radioactive Materials › Subpart 380-2 - Definitions › Section 380-2.1 - General Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) The
					 following terms have the following meanings when used in this Part.
(1) 'Absorbed dose' means the energy imparted
					 by ionizing radiation per unit mass of irradiated material. The units of absorbed
					 dose are the rad and the gray (Gy).
(2) 'Activity' is the rate of disintegration
					 (transformation) or decay of radioactive material. The units of activity are the
					 curie (Ci) and the becquerel (Bq).
(3) 'Adult' means an individual 18 or more
					 years of age.
(4) 'Agreement state'
					 means any state that has entered into an effective agreement with the U.S.
					 Nuclear Regulatory Commission pursuant to Section 274b. of the Atomic Energy Act
					 of 1954, as amended.
(5) 'ALARA' (as
					 low as reasonably achievable) means making every reasonable effort to maintain
					 exposures to radiation as far below the dose limits in this Part as is practical
					 consistent with the purpose for which the action is undertaken, taking into
					 account the state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to the
					 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 radioactive materials in the public
					 interest.
(6) 'Annual limit on
					 intake' (ALI) means the derived limit for the amount of radioactive material
					 taken into the body of an adult worker by inhalation or ingestion in a year. ALI
					 is the smaller value of intake of a given radionuclide in a year by the reference
					 man that would result in a committed effective dose equivalent of 5 rems (0.05
					 Sv) or a committed dose equivalent of 50 rems (0.5 Sv) to any individual organ or
					 tissue. (ALI values for intake by ingestion and by inhalation of selected
					 radionuclides are given in Table I, Columns 1 and 2, of section
					 380-11.7 
					 of this Part).
(7) 'Applicant' means
					 the person applying for a permit issued pursuant to this Part.
(8) 'Background radiation' means radiation from
					 cosmic sources; naturally occurring radioactive materials, including radon
					 (except as a decay product of source or special nuclear material); and global
					 fallout as it exists in the environment from the testing of nuclear explosive
					 devices or from nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl that are not under the
					 control of the licensee. "Background radiation" does not include radiation from
					 source, byproduct, or special nuclear material regulated by the U.S. Nuclear
					 Regulatory Commission, the State, or another agreement state.
(9) 'Biological material' means material
					 derived from living organisms.
(10)
					 'Class' (or lung class or inhalation class) means a classification scheme for
					 inhaled material according to its rate of clearance from the pulmonary region of
					 the lung. Materials are classified as D, W, or Y, which applies to a range of
					 clearance half-times: for Class D (Days) of less than 10 days, for Class W
					 (Weeks) from 10 to 100 days, and for Class Y (Years) of greater than 100
					 days.
(11) 'Collective dose' is the
					 sum of the individual doses received in a given period of time by a specified
					 population from exposure to a specified source of radiation.
(12) 'Committed dose equivalent' (HT,50) means
					 the dose equivalent to organs or tissues of reference (T) that will be received
					 from an intake of radioactive material by an individual during the 50-year period
					 following the intake.
(13) 'Committed
					 effective dose equivalent' (HE,50) is the sum of the products of the weighting
					 factors applicable to each of the body organs or tissues that are irradiated and
					 the committed dose equivalent to these organs or tissues (HE,50 =
					 [SIGMA]WTHT,50).
(14) 'Constraint'
					 (or dose constraint) means a value above which specified permittee actions are
					 required.
(15) 'Deep-dose equivalent'
					 (Hd), which applies to external whole-body exposure, is the dose equivalent at a
					 tissue depth of 1 cm (1000 mg/cm2).
(16) 'Department' means the New York State
					 Department of Environmental Conservation. Newly renumbered paragraphs
					 380-2.1(a)(17) and (19) are amended to tread as follows:
(17) 'Derived air concentration' (DAC) means
					 the concentration of a given radionuclide in air which, if breathed by the
					 reference man for a working year of 2,000 hours under conditions of light work
					 (inhalation rate 1.2 cubic meters of air per hour), results in an intake of one
					 ALI. DAC values are given in Table I, Column 3, in section
					 380-11.7 
					 of this Part.
(18) 'Derived air
					 concentration-hour' (DAC-hour) is the product of the concentration of radioactive
					 material in air (expressed as a fraction or multiple of the derived air
					 concentration for each radionuclide) and the time of exposure to that
					 radionuclide, in hours. A licensee may take 2,000 DAC-hours to represent one ALI,
					 equivalent to a committed effective dose equivalent of 5 rems (0.05
					 Sv).
(19) 'Discharge' means a release
					 of material to the ground or surface water of the State.
(20) 'Disposal' means the act of discarding
					 regulated radioactive material. Depositing or injecting radioactive material in
					 the environment is disposal unless the radioactive material is being used in the
					 environment, as authorized by a permit issued under section
					 380-3.1 
					 of this Part.
(21) 'Dose' (or
					 radiation dose) is a generic term that means absorbed dose, dose equivalent,
					 effective dose equivalent, committed dose equivalent, committed effective dose
					 equivalent, or total effective dose equivalent, as defined in section
					 380-2.3  of
					 this Subpart.
(22) 'Dose equivalent'
					 (HT) means the product of the absorbed dose in tissue, quality factor, and all
					 other necessary modifying factors at the location of interest. The units of dose
					 equivalent are the rem and sievert (Sv). Rem is the special unit and sievert is
					 the SI unit used for any of the quantities expressed as dose
					 equivalent.
(23) 'Effective dose
					 equivalent' (HE) is the sum of the products of the dose equivalent to the organ
					 or issue (HT) and the weighting factors (WT) applicable to each of the body
					 organs or tissues that are irradiated (He = [SIGMA]WTHT.
(24) 'Effluent' means material released to the
					 air or water.
(25) 'Effluent
					 treatment' means those processes designed to reduce the concentration of
					 radionuclides in effluents to air or water that employ equipment permanently
					 installed in the effluent duct or pipe. Effluent treatment does not include
					 devices or procedures employed before the effluent enters the duct or pipe to
					 reduce the concentration of radionuclide in the air or water entering the duct or
					 pipe.
(26) 'Emission' means a release
					 of material to air.
(27)
					 'Environmental Conservation Law' (or ECL) means Chapter 43-B of the Consolidated
					 Laws of New York.
(28) 'Exposure'
					 means the quotient of dQ divided by dm where dQ is the absolute value of the
					 total charge of the ions of one sign produced in air when all the electrons
					 (negatrons and positrons) liberated by photons in a volume element of air having
					 mass dm are completely stopped in air. The SI unit of exposure is the columb per
					 kilogram (C/kg) (see section
					 380-2.2  of
					 this Subpart).
(29) 'External dose'
					 means that portion of the dose equivalent received from radiation sources outside
					 the body.
(30) 'Extremities' means
					 hand, elbow, arm below the elbow, foot, knee, and leg below the knee.
(31) 'Gray' (see section
					 380-2.3  of
					 this Subpart).
(32) 'Incineration'
					 means thermally breaking down waste in an enclosed device using controlled flame
					 combustion to an ash residue that contains little or no combustible material as a
					 method of disposal.
(33) 'Individual'
					 means any human being.
(34)
					 'Inspection' means an official examination or observation including, but not
					 limited to, records, tests, surveys, and monitoring to determine compliance with
					 rules, regulations, orders, requirements, and conditions of the
					 Department.
(35) 'Internal dose'
					 means that portion of the dose equivalent received from radioactive material
					 taken into the body.
(36) 'License'
					 means a radioactive material license issued by the New York State Department of
					 Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, U.S. Nuclear
					 Regulatory Commission, or licensing agency of an agreement state, authorizing the
					 receipt, possession, use, transfer, or disposal of radioactive
					 material.
(37) 'Licensee' means the
					 holder of a license.
(38) 'Licensing
					 agency' means the municipal, State, or Federal government agency authorized to
					 issue radioactive material licenses.
(39) 'Licensed material' means radioactive
					 material subject to general or specific licensing and regulatory control by the
					 New York State Department of Health, New York City Department of Health and
					 Mental Hygiene, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or licensing agency of an
					 agreement state.
(40) 'Limits' (dose
					 limits) means the permissible upper bounds of radiation doses.
(41) 'Loss of control of radioactive material'
					 means the loss of containment of radioactive material or radioactive material
					 whose location is unknown which may result in the unauthorized disposal or
					 release of radioactive material to the environment.
(42) 'Member of the public' means any
					 individual except when that individual is receiving an occupational
					 dose.
(43) 'Monitoring' (radiation
					 monitoring, radiation protection monitoring) means the measurement of radiation
					 levels, radioactive material concentrations, surface area concentrations, or
					 quantities of radioactive material and the use of the results of these
					 measurements to evaluate potential exposures and doses.
(44) 'Nonstochastic effect' (deterministic
					 effect) means a health effect, the severity of which varies with the dose and for
					 which a threshold is believed to exist. Radiation-induced cataract formation is
					 an example of a nonstochastic effect.
(45) 'NYCRR' means the Codes, Rules and
					 Regulations of the State of New York.
(46) 'Occupational dose' means the dose
					 received by an individual in the course of employment in which the individual's
					 assigned duties involve exposure to radiation and/or to radioactive material from
					 licensed and unlicensed sources of radiation, whether in the possession of the
					 licensee or other person. Occupational dose does not include doses received from
					 background radiation, as a patient from medical practices, from voluntary
					 participation in medical research programs, or as a member of the
					 public.
(47) 'Permit' means a
					 radiation control permit issued pursuant to this Part authorizing the disposal or
					 release of radioactive material to the environment, the use of radioactive
					 materials in the environment, or the maintenance of a former radioactive waste
					 land burial site. The permit identifies the approved action, includes any
					 variances, and contains standards and conditions of performance for the
					 action.
(48) 'Permittee' means a
					 person authorized to undertake an action regulated under a permit issued pursuant
					 to this Part. Eligible permittees are owners, lessees, and operators at a site or
					 facility.
(49) 'Person' means:
(i) Any individual, public, private, or
					 government corporation, joint stock company, industry, partnership,
					 co-partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private institution,
					 agency, department, or bureau of the State, or group, political subdivision of
					 the State, any other State or political subdivision thereof, Federal government
					 agencies other than the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Department of
					 Energy, any foreign government or nation or any political subdivision of any such
					 government or nation; and
(ii) Any
					 legal subsidiary, successor, representative, agent, or agency of the foregoing,
					 or any other legal entity whatsoever.
(50) 'Public dose' means the dose received by a
					 member of the public from exposure to radiation and/or radioactive material
					 released into the environment by a person regulated under this Part, or to any
					 other source of radiation under the control of a person regulated under this
					 Part. It does not include occupational dose or doses received from background
					 radiation, from any medical administration the individual has received, from
					 exposure to individuals administered radioactive material and released in
					 accordance with a radioactive materials license, or from voluntary participation
					 in medical research programs.
(51)
					 'Quality Factor' (Q) means the modifying factor (listed in Tables 1 and 2 of
					 section
					 380-2.3(b) and
					 (c)  of this Subpart) that is used to derive
					 dose equivalent from absorbed dose.
(52) 'Rad' (see section
					 380-2.3  of
					 this Subpart).
(53) 'Radiation'
					 (ionizing radiation) means alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, x-rays,
					 neutrons, high-speed electrons, high-speed protons, and other particles capable
					 of producing ions. Radiation, as used in this Part, does not include non-ionizing
					 radiation, such as radiowaves or microwaves, or visible, infrared, or ultraviolet
					 light.
(54) 'Radioactive material'
					 means any material (solid, liquid, or gas) which emits radiation
					 spontaneously.
(55) 'Radioactivity'
					 means the transformation of unstable atomic nuclei by the emission of
					 radiation.
(56) 'Reference man' means
					 a hypothetical aggregation of human physical and physiological characteristics
					 determined by international consensus. These characteristics may be used by
					 researchers and public health workers to standardize results of experiments and
					 to relate biological insult to a common base.
(57) 'Release' means the introduction of
					 material to the environment. Release includes all discharges and
					 emissions.
(58) 'Rem' (see section
					 380-2.3  of
					 this Subpart).
(59) 'Restricted area'
					 means an area, access to which is limited by the licensee for the purpose of
					 protecting individuals against undue risks from exposure to radiation and
					 radioactive materials. Restricted area does not include areas used as residential
					 quarters, but separate rooms in a residential building may be set apart as a
					 restricted area.
(60) 'Sanitary
					 sewerage' means a system of public sewers for carrying off waste water and
					 refuse, but excluding on-site waste water treatment facilities, septic tanks, and
					 leach fields owned or operated by the licensee.
(61) 'SI' is the abbreviation for the
					 International System of Units.
(62)
					 'Sievert' (see section
					 380-2.3  of
					 this Subpart).
(63) 'Stochastic
					 effect' (probabilistic effect) means a health effect that occurs randomly and for
					 which the probability of the effect occurring, rather than its severity, is
					 assumed to be a function of dose without threshold. Hereditary effects and cancer
					 incidence are examples of stochastic effects.
(64) 'Survey' means an evaluation of the
					 radiological conditions and potential hazards incident to the production, use,
					 transfer, release, disposal, or presence of radioactive material or other sources
					 of radiation. When appropriate, such an evaluation includes a physical survey of
					 the location of radioactive material, and measurements, monitoring, or
					 calculations of levels of radiation, concentrations, or quantities of radioactive
					 material present.
(65) 'Total
					 effective dose equivalent' (TEDE) means the sum of the effective dose equivalent
					 (for external exposures) and the committed effective dose equivalent (for
					 internal exposures).
(66)
					 'Technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material' (TENORM)
					 means naturally occurring radioactive material whose radionuclide concentrations
					 are increased by or as a result of past or present human practices, such as
					 manufacturing or water processing.
(67) 'Uncontrolled release' means a release of
					 material to the environment that was unplanned, due to failure to secure
					 radioactive material, equipment failure, human error, or a severe event such as
					 fire, flood, or storm.
(68)
					 'Unrestricted area' means an area, access to which is neither limited nor
					 controlled by the licensee.
(69)
					 'Week' means seven consecutive days.
(70) 'Weighting factor (WT)' for an organ or
					 tissue (T) is the proportion of the risk of stochastic effects resulting from
					 irradiation of that organ or tissue to the total risk of stochastic effects when
					 the whole body is irradiated uniformly. For calculating the effective dose
					 equivalent, the values of Wt are:
ORGAN DOSE WEIGHTING FACTORS
Organ or Tissue
Wt
Gonads
0.25
Breast
0.15
Red bone marrow
0.12
Lung
0.12
Thyroid
0.03
Bone surfaces
0.03
Remainder
0.30a
Whole Body
1.00b
a 0.30 results from 0.06 for
						each of 5 "remainder" organs (excluding the skin and the lens of the eye) that
						receive the highest doses.
b For the purpose of weighting
						the external whole body dose (for adding it to the internal dose), a single
						weighting factor, Wt = 1.0, has been specified. The use of other weighting
						factors for external exposure will be approved on a case-by-case basis until such
						time as specific guidance is issued.
(71) 'Whole body' means, for purposes of
					 external exposure, head, trunk (including male gonads), arms above the elbow, or
					 legs above the knee.
(72) 'Year'
					 means the period of time beginning in January used to determine compliance with
					 the provisions of this Part. The permittee may change the starting date of the
					 year used to determine compliance by the permit provided that the change is made
					 at the beginning of the year and that no day is omitted or duplicated in
					 consecutive years.