Whatever became of 40 CFR Part 191?
Technical Report
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OSTI ID:121070
In 1985, the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued 40 CFR Part 191, Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for the Management and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level and Transuranic Radioactive Wastes. These standards set the levels of exposure and release, for the United States, which are permitted in the general environment as a result of the management and disposal of the subject wastes. Those standards were challenged in Federal court and, in 1987, the disposal portion of the standards were remanded to the Agency. Since then, the Agency has worked toward reestablishing the standards. In October 1992, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Land Withdrawal Act reinstated most of the disposal standards in Part 191 and established a short time period for reestablishment of the entirety of the disposal standards. The Agency proposed new sections on February 10, 1993; the final sections were published in the December 20, 1993 Federal Register. The Agency has limited annual individual doses to 150 microsieverts committed effective dose received through all pathways. Also, for underground sources of drinking water, there is an annual limit of four microsieverts committed effective dose received from beta- and gamma-emitting radionuclides transported through the ground-water pathway and separate concentration limits on alpha-emitting radionuclides. While not a standard, another important aspect of this rulemaking was the Agency responding to a Court direction to further consider the question of whether geologic repositories are a form of underground injection; the Agency has decided that they are not. Also, in October 1992, the Energy Policy Act was enacted. Section 801 directed the Agency to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a study to provide findings and recommendations on standards for protection of the public health and safety from radioactive materials in the repository at Yucca Mountain.
- Research Organization:
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Coll. of Engineering and Mines; New Mexico State Univ., University Park, NM (United States); Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC), Las Cruces, NM (United States); USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 121070
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940225--Vol.2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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