Proposed Amendments to the Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Conference · Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:21208569

Clark, L ^[1]

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1. U.S. Public Health Service, Team Leader for the Yucca Mountain Standards, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (6608J), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. 20460-0001 (United States)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed amendments to its radiation protection standards for the potential spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste disposal system in Yucca Mountain, Nevada on 22 August 2005. The original standards are found in Part 197 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR Part 197). The Energy Policy Act of 1992 directed, and gave the authority to, EPA to take this action based upon input from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The final original standards were published in the Federal Register (66 FR 32073) on 13 June 2001. In July 2004, a Federal court remanded part of the standards to EPA for reconsideration. The 40 CFR Part 197 standards, as issued in 2001, have four major parts: (1) individual-protection during storage activities; (2) individual-protection following closure of the repository; (3) human-intrusion; and (4) ground-water protection. The storage standard is 150 micro-sieverts ({mu}Sv) (15 mrem) annual committed effective dose equivalent (CEDE) to any member of the general public. The disposal standards are: (1) 150 {mu}Sv (15 mrem) annual CEDE for the reasonably maximally exposed individual (RMEI) for 10,000 years after disposal; (2)150 {mu}Sv (15 mrem) annual CEDE received by the RMEI within 10,000 years after disposal as a result of human intrusion; and (3) the levels of radionuclides in the ground water cannot cause annual individual doses to exceed: (1) 40 {mu}Sv (4 mrem) per year from beta and gamma emitters or (2) 5 pico-curies per liter (pCi/L) of radium-226 and -228 or 15 pCi/L of gross alpha activity. There were also requirements related to the post-10,000-year period, the basis of compliance judgments, and performance assessments. The Agency's proposed amendments would retain the individual-protection standard established in the 2001 standards, up to 10,000 years. In addition, the compliance period for the individual-protection and human-intrusion standards would be increased to 1 million years and the annual CEDE limit between 10,000 and 1 million years would be 3.5 mSv (350 mrem). There are also proposed requirements for the way performance assessments will be conducted. Finally, the dose calculation methodology would be updated to an ICRP 60 and 72 basis instead of ICRP 26 and 30. The comment period on the proposed amendments ended 21 November 2005. The Agency is analyzing the comments and will publish its responses when issuing the final standards. The proposed standards and the support documents are available at http://www.epa.gov/radiation/yucca/index.html. The docket containing all of the comments is under Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2005-0083 at: http://www.regulations.gov. (author)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21208569
• Report Number(s): INIS-US-09-WM-06041; TRN: US09V0880079356
• Resource Relation: Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 19 refs
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AMENDMENTS
GROUND WATER
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HUMAN INTRUSION
ICRP
NEVADA
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RADIUM 226
REGULATIONS
SAFETY STANDARDS
SPENT FUELS
US EPA
YUCCA MOUNTAIN