The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should consider additional safety measures for its proposed update on rules for disposal of “very-low-level” radioactive waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The federal regulator currently on a case-by-case basis allows land burial of this waste type in municipal and hazardous waste landfills that are not licensed for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. A rule interpretation now being considered would allow some landfills to be authorized take that material on an ongoing basis, provided they meet certain requirements, such as a total dose limit under 25 millirem from all disposals per year.
“We recommend adding that the disposal facility should generally be limited to RCRA [Resource Conservation and Recovery Act] hazardous waste facilities that also have adequate controls in place to contain and to monitor for the radioactively contaminants in all media over the life of the contaminants,” according to comments submitted in July by the EPA to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Specifically, the exemption should be restricted to landfills that are compliant with standards cited in Subtitle C of RCRA, which covers regulation of hazardous waste, Dana Stalcup, acting director of the EPA’s Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, wrote in a July 20 letter attached to the agency’s comments.
Disposal of certain radioactive wastes in facilities not licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should also be predicated on “sufficiently low” levels of radioactive materials, adequate design of the site, and public support, according to Stalcup.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Monday had received at least 4,894 comments on its rules proposal, according to the website regulations.gov. However, 1,702 of those were “duplicate or significantly similar comments,” the agency said in an Aug. 26 note. Anecdotally, most of the commenters appear to be opposed to or skeptical of the proposal. Public input is being accepted through Oct. 21.
“We will consider all comments on the interpretive rule once the comment period is over,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email Monday.
