Cut in Nuclear Waste Regulation Planned

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday unveiled plans for systematically exempting very low-level radioactive materials from regulatory control, opening the possibility of recycling such waste, disposing of it in landfills or reusing nuclear sites with some residual contamination.

Commission Chairman Kenneth M. Carr outlined the proposed policy with a promise that every exemption would receive sharp scrutiny, but it was greeted by an angry reaction from anti-nuclear activists, including a call for Congress to seek the removal of all five members of the commission.

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) announced that his Interior and Insular Affairs subcommittee on energy and the environment would call commission members to testify at a hearing on the proposal July 27.

By some estimates, the low-level waste generated by nuclear power plants, research institutions and medical facilities accounts for 30% of the material regulated by the NRC. It includes such things as cleaning rags and clothing discarded by workers at nuclear power plants, tracers used in diagnostic tests in medical centers and bedding from animal cages in research laboratories.

The heart of the new policy is a proposal to consider declaring materials “below regulatory interest” when they expose small numbers of people to a radiation dose of less than 10 millirem per year, or mass exposure of one-tenth of a millirem per year.

By comparison, NRC officials pointed out, the average American receives a natural exposure of about 300 millirem per year--30 millirem from cosmic radiation, 40 millirem from food and drink, 30 millirem from soils and building materials and 200 millirem from the air, which contains radioactive radon.

Until now, the NRC has considered applications for exemptions on a case-by-case basis, and Carr said that the new policy is intended not only to allow authorities to concentrate on regulating materials posing a more significant hazard but to assure more consistent protection of health and safety.

The proposal will soon be scheduled for public hearings at NRC regional offices in California, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Robert M. Bernero, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, said that within the professional staff designing the proposal “there has been disagreement, even heated disagreement, and there is to this day.”

But he said the debate has centered not on the wisdom of adopting a “below regulatory interest” policy but upon the exposure limits.

Hypothetically, the NRC estimated, lifetime exposure at the limits set in the proposal would be expected to cause five annual cancer deaths per 100,000 people.

Bernero said he had presented the proposal to officials of the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday, but the agency offered no reaction.

Carr noted that there are already a number of consumer products, such as watches with tritium-illuminated dials, on the market.

“We must each realize,” he said, “that when we buy our smoke detectors or choose to take a cross-country flight, we are already making decisions about radiation that are like ‘below regulatory concern.’ There is no human endeavor that involves a zero level of risk, and radiation is no exception. But the levels of radiation we are talking about here, while not zero, are exceedingly small.”

Opponents of the proposal criticized it as an invitation to unacceptable health risks and as a sop to the nuclear industry.