Policy News - December 31, 2003

Streamlining radioactive waste disposal

In the future, waste that contains small amounts of radioactive materials could find its way into hazardous waste or even municipal landfills under regulations being considered by the U.S. EPA. Such “low-activity” radioactive waste (LARW) contains small enough concentrations of radionuclides that it may not require the same radiation protection measures as those governing spent nuclear fuel or other high-level radioactive waste, according to the advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) released by EPA officials in late November.

Currently, LARW has to be stored at one of the country’s three commercial nuclear waste sites and is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), EPA, and the states, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry policy organization. This multipronged regulatory framework, EPA staff members say, has resulted in inconsistent management of radioactive wastes and a limited number of suitable disposal facilities.

The National Research Council came to similar conclusions in a 2003 report that examined LARW management. A key problem, the council found, is that current rules focus on the source of the waste rather than its inherent radiological properties. For example, naturally occurring radioactive wastes extracted through mining operations aren’t regulated by federal agencies, and state regulations are inconsistent, according to the report. Yet, these wastes can contain significant concentrations of radioactive materials compared to the highly regulated waste streams coming from the nuclear industry.

EPA staff stress that the waste being considered under the ANPRM doesn’t include spent nuclear fuel, high-level waste, transuranic waste, or uranium and thorium mill tailings. Rather, the LARW targeted by the rule could contain only trace amounts of radioactive contamination such as soils or construction rubble, protective clothing, or even drinking water treatment filters. EPA staff members say that these types of wastes could be safely contained at hazardous waste landfills and possibly some of the newer municipal landfills. The aim of the ANPRM, according to EPA officials, is to increase disposal options and ease the regulatory burden for waste generators, thereby improving LARW disposal practices.

Environmentalists, however, say what EPA’s action really comes down to is deregulating some types of nuclear waste. “Our concern is that this rulemaking is being used to set an exemption level [below which LARW will be considered safe] and will allow materials that are currently regulated to be released from regulatory control and sent to regular dumps or recycled into the marketplace,” says Diane D’Arrigo, nuclear waste project director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a watchdog group. “It’s our understanding that there needs to be an improvement in the way nuclear waste is regulated and managed, and this rulemaking doesn’t solve anything; it just makes it worse.”

Indeed, NRC is also in the midst of rulemaking that considers various options for handling LARW, including recycling, reusing, and disposal in regulated landfills, says David McIntyre, an NRC spokesperson. Agency officials provided technical advice to EPA and expect to issue an NRC proposal in late 2004. For more information on EPA’s rulemaking, go to www.epa.gov/radiation/larw. —KRIS CHRISTEN