['Waste']
['Special Waste']
04/02/2025
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Authority: Sec. 801, Pub. L. 102-486, 106 Stat. 2921, 42 U.S.C. 10141 n.
Subpart A - Public Health and Environmental Standards for Storage
§197.1 What does subpart A cover?
This subpart covers the storage of radioactive material by DOE in the Yucca Mountain repository and on the Yucca Mountain site.
§197.2 What definitions apply in subpart A?
Annual committed effective dose equivalent means the effective dose equivalent received by an individual in one year from radiation sources external to the individual plus the committed effective dose equivalent.
Committed effective dose equivalent means the effective dose equivalent received over a period of time (e.g., 30 years,), as determined by NRC, by an individual from radionuclides internal to the individual following a one-year intake of those radionuclides.
DOE means the Department of Energy.
Effective dose equivalent means the sum of the products of the dose equivalent received by specified tissues following an exposure of, or an intake of radionuclides into, specified tissues of the body, multiplied by appropriate weighting factors. Annual committed effective dose equivalents shall be calculated using weighting factors in appendix A of this part, unless otherwise directed by NRC in accordance with the introduction to appendix A of this part.
EPA means the Environmental Protection Agency.
General environment means everywhere outside the Yucca Mountain site, the Nellis Air Force Range, and the Nevada Test Site.
High-level radioactive waste means:
(1) The highly radioactive material resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste produced directly in reprocessing and any solid material derived from such liquid waste that contains fission products in sufficient concentrations; and
(2) Other highly radioactive material that the Commission, consistent with existing law, determines by rule requires permanent isolation.
Member of the public means anyone who is not a radiation worker for purposes of worker protection.
NRC means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Radioactive material means matter composed of or containing radionuclides subject to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2014 et seq.). Radioactive material includes, but is not limited to, high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Spent nuclear fuel means fuel that has been withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation, the constituent elements of which have not been separated by reprocessing.
Storage means retention (and any associated activity, operation, or process necessary to carry out successful retention) of radioactive material with the intent or capability to readily access or retrieve such material.
Yucca Mountain repository means the excavated portion of the facility constructed underground within the Yucca Mountain site.
Yucca Mountain site means:
(1) The site recommended by the Secretary of DOE to the President under section 112(b)(1)(B) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10132(b)(1)(B)) on May 27, 1986; or
(2) The area under the control of DOE for the use of Yucca Mountain activities at the time of licensing, if the site designated under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act is amended by Congress prior to the time of licensing.
[66 FR 32132, June 13, 2001, as amended at 73 FR 61287, Oct. 15, 2008]
§197.3 How is subpart A implemented?
The NRC implements this subpart A. The DOE must demonstrate to NRC that normal operations at the Yucca Mountain site will and do occur in compliance with this subpart before NRC may grant or continue a license for DOE to receive and possess radioactive material within the Yucca Mountain site.
§197.4 What standard must DOE meet?
The DOE must ensure that no member of the public in the general environment receives more than an annual committed effective dose equivalent of 150 microsieverts (15 millirems) from the combination of:
(a) Management and storage (as defined in 40 CFR 191.2) of radioactive material that:
(1) Is subject to 40 CFR 191.3(a); and
(2) Occurs outside of the Yucca Mountain repository but within the Yucca Mountain site; and
(b) Storage (as defined in §197.2) of radioactive material inside the Yucca Mountain repository.
§197.5 When will this part take effect?
The standards in this part take effect on July 13, 2001.
Subpart B - Public Health and Environmental Standards for Disposal
§197.11 What does subpart B cover?
This subpart covers the disposal of radioactive material in the Yucca Mountain repository by DOE.
§197.12 What definitions apply in subpart B?
All definitions in subpart A of this part and the following:
Accessible environment means any point outside of the controlled area, including:
(1) The atmosphere (including the atmosphere above the surface area of the controlled area);
(2) Land surfaces;
(3) Surface waters;
(4) Oceans; and
(5) The lithosphere.
Aquifer means a water-bearing underground geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation (excluding perched water bodies) that can yield a significant amount of ground water to a well or spring.
Barrier means any material, structure, or feature that, for a period to be determined by NRC, prevents or substantially reduces the rate of movement of water or radionuclides from the Yucca Mountain repository to the accessible environment, or prevents the release or substantially reduces the release rate of radionuclides from the waste. For example, a barrier may be a geologic feature, an engineered structure, a canister, a waste form with physical and chemical characteristics that significantly decrease the mobility of radionuclides, or a material placed over and around the waste, provided that the material substantially delays movement of water or radionuclides.
Controlled area means:
(1) The surface area, identified by passive institutional controls, that encompasses no more than 300 square kilometers. It must not extend farther:
(a) South than 36°40′13.6661″ north latitude, in the predominant direction of ground water flow; and
(b) Than five kilometers from the repository footprint in any other direction; and
(2) The subsurface underlying the surface area.
Disposal means the emplacement of radioactive material into the Yucca Mountain disposal system with the intent of isolating it for as long as reasonably possible and with no intent of recovery, whether or not the design of the disposal system permits the ready recovery of the material. Disposal of radioactive material in the Yucca Mountain disposal system begins when all of the ramps and other openings into the Yucca Mountain repository are sealed.
Ground water means water that is below the land surface and in a saturated zone.
Human intrusion means breaching of any portion of the Yucca Mountain disposal system, within the repository footprint, by any human activity.
Passive institutional controls means:
(1) Markers, as permanent as practicable, placed on the Earth's surface;
(2) Public records and archives;
(3) Government ownership and regulations regarding land or resource use; and
(4) Other reasonable methods of preserving knowledge about the location, design, and contents of the Yucca Mountain disposal system.
Peak dose means the highest annual committed effective dose equivalent projected to be received by the reasonably maximally exposed individual.
Performance assessment means an analysis that:
(1) Identifies the features, events, processes, (except human intrusion), and sequences of events and processes (except human intrusion) that might affect the Yucca Mountain disposal system and their probabilities of occurring;
(2) Examines the effects of those features, events, processes, and sequences of events and processes upon the performance of the Yucca Mountain disposal system; and
(3) Estimates the annual committed effective dose equivalent incurred by the reasonably maximally exposed individual, including the associated uncertainties, as a result of releases caused by all significant features, events, processes, and sequences of events and processes, weighted by their probability of occurrence.
Period of geologic stability means the time during which the variability of geologic characteristics and their future behavior in and around the Yucca Mountain site can be bounded, that is, they can be projected within a reasonable range of possibilities. This period is defined to end at 1 million years after disposal.
Plume of contamination means that volume of ground water in the predominant direction of ground water flow that contains radioactive contamination from releases from the Yucca Mountain repository. It does not include releases from any other potential sources on or near the Nevada Test Site.
Repository footprint means the outline of the outermost locations of where the waste is emplaced in the Yucca Mountain repository.
Slice of the plume means a cross-section of the plume of contamination with sufficient thickness parallel to the prevalent direction of flow of the plume that it contains the representative volume.
Total dissolved solids means the total dissolved (filterable) solids in water as determined by use of the method specified in 40 CFR part 136.
Undisturbed performance means that human intrusion or the occurrence of unlikely natural features, events, and processes do not disturb the disposal system.
Undisturbed Yucca Mountain disposal system means that the Yucca Mountain disposal system is not affected by human intrusion.
Waste means any radioactive material emplaced for disposal into the Yucca Mountain repository.
Well-capture zone means the volume from which a well pumping at a defined rate is withdrawing water from an aquifer. The dimensions of the well-capture zone are determined by the pumping rate in combination with aquifer characteristics assumed for calculations, such as hydraulic conductivity, gradient, and the screened interval.
Yucca Mountain disposal system means the combination of underground engineered and natural barriers within the controlled area that prevents or substantially reduces releases from the waste.
[66 FR 32132, June 13, 2001, as amended at 73 FR 61287, Oct. 15, 2008]
§197.13 How is Subpart B implemented?
The NRC implements this subpart B. The DOE must demonstrate to NRC that there is a reasonable expectation of compliance with this subpart before NRC may issue a license.
(a) The NRC will determine compliance, based upon the arithmetic mean of the projected doses from DOE's performance assessments for the period within 1 million years after disposal, with:
(1) Sections 197.20(a)(1) and 197.20(a)(2) of this subpart; and
(2) Sections 197.25(b)(1), 197.25(b)(2), and 197.30 of this subpart, if performance assessment is used to demonstrate compliance with either or both of these sections.
(b) [Reserved]
[73 FR 61287, Oct. 15, 2008]
§197.14 What is a reasonable expectation?
Reasonable expectation means that NRC is satisfied that compliance will be achieved based upon the full record before it. Characteristics of reasonable expectation include that it:
(a) Requires less than absolute proof because absolute proof is impossible to attain for disposal due to the uncertainty of projecting long-term performance;
(b) Accounts for the inherently greater uncertainties in making long-term projections of the performance of the Yucca Mountain disposal system;
(c) Does not exclude important parameters from assessments and analyses simply because they are difficult to precisely quantify to a high degree of confidence; and
(d) Focuses performance assessments and analyses upon the full range of defensible and reasonable parameter distributions rather than only upon extreme physical situations and parameter values.
§197.15 How must DOE take into account the changes that will occur during the period of geologic stability?
The DOE should not project changes in society, the biosphere (other than climate), human biology, or increases or decreases of human knowledge or technology. In all analyses done to demonstrate compliance with this part, DOE must assume that all of those factors remain constant as they are at the time of license application submission to NRC. However, DOE must vary factors related to the geology, hydrology, and climate based upon cautious, but reasonable assumptions of the changes in these factors that could affect the Yucca Mountain disposal system during the period of geologic stability, consistent with the requirements for performance assessments specified at §197.36.
[73 FR 61287, Oct. 15, 2008]
Appendix A to Part 197 - Calculation of Annual Committed Effective Dose Equivalent
Unless otherwise directed by NRC, DOE shall use the radiation weighting factors and tissue weighting factors in this Appendix to calculate the internal component of the annual committed effective dose equivalent for compliance with §§197.20 and 197.25 of this part. NRC may allow DOE to use updated factors issued after the effective date of this regulation. Any such factors shall have been issued by consensus scientific organizations and incorporated by EPA into Federal radiation guidance in order to be considered generally accepted and eligible for this use. Further, they must be compatible with the effective dose equivalent dose calculation methodology established in ICRP 26 and 30, and continued in ICRP 60 and 72, and incorporated in this appendix.
I. Equivalent Dose
The calculation of the committed effective dose equivalent (CEDE) begins with the determination of the equivalent dose, HT, to a tissue or organ, T, listed in Table A.2 below by using the equation:
where DT,R is the absorbed dose in rads (one gray, an SI unit, equals 100 rads) averaged over the tissue or organ, T, due to radiation type, R, and wR is the radiation weighting factor which is given in Table A.1 below. The unit of equivalent dose is the rem (sievert, in SI units).
| Radiation type and energy range 2 | wR value |
|---|---|
| Photons, all energies | 1 |
| Electrons and muons, all energies | 1 |
| Neutrons, energy | |
| <10 keV | 5 |
| 10 keV to 100 keV | 10 |
| >100 keV to 2 MeV | 20 |
| >2 MeV to 20 MeV | 10 |
| >20 MeV | 5 |
| Protons, other than recoil protons, >2 MeV | 5 |
| Alpha particles, fission fragments, heavy nuclei | 20 |
| 1 All values relate to the radiation incident on the body or, for internal sources, emitted from the source. 2 See paragraph A14 in ICRP Publication 60 for the choice of values for other radiation types and energies not in the table. | |
II. Effective Dose Equivalent
The next step is the calculation of the effective dose equivalent, E. The probability of occurrence of a stochastic effect in a tissue or organ is assumed to be proportional to the equivalent dose in the tissue or organ. The constant of proportionality differs for the various tissues of the body, but in assessing health detriment the total risk is required. This is taken into account using the tissue weighting factors, wT in Table A.2, which represent the proportion of the stochastic risk resulting from irradiation of the tissue or organ to the total risk when the whole body is irradiated uniformly and HT is the equivalent dose in the tissue or organ, T, in the equation:
| Tissue or organ | wT value |
|---|---|
| Gonads | 0.20 |
| Bone marrow (red) | 0.12 |
| Colon | 0.12 |
| Lung | 0.12 |
| Stomach | 0.12 |
| Bladder | 0.05 |
| Breast | 0.05 |
| Liver | 0.05 |
| Esophagus | 0.05 |
| Thyroid | 0.05 |
| Skin | 0.01 |
| Bone surface | 0.01 |
| Remainder | a b 0.05 |
| a Remainder is composed of the following tissues: adrenals, brain, extrathoracic airways, small intestine, kidneys, muscle, pancreas, spleen, thymus, and uterus. b The value 0.05 is applied to the mass-weighted average dose to the Remainder tissues group, except when the following “splitting rule” applies: If a tissue of Remainder receives a dose in excess of that received by any of the 12 tissues for which weighting factors are specified, a weighting factor of 0.025 (half of Remainder) is applied to that tissue or organ and 0.025 to the mass-averaged committed equivalent dose equivalent in the rest of the Remainder tissues. | |
III. Annual Committed Tissue or Organ Equivalent Dose
For internal irradiation from incorporated radionuclides, the total absorbed dose will be spread out in time, being gradually delivered as the radionuclide decays. The time distribution of the absorbed dose rate will vary with the radionuclide, its form, the mode of intake and the tissue within which it is incorporated. To take account of this distribution the quantity committed equivalent dose, HT(τ) where τ is the integration time in years following an intake over any particular year, is used and is the integral over time of the equivalent dose rate in a particular tissue or organ that will be received by an individual following an intake of radioactive material into the body:
for a single intake of activity at time t0 where HT(τ) is the relevant equivalent-dose rate in a tissue or organ at time t. For the purposes of this rule, the previously mentioned single intake may be considered to be an annual intake.
IV. Internal Component of the Annual Committed Effective Dose Equivalent
If the annual committed equivalent doses to the individual tissues or organs resulting from an annual intake are multiplied by the appropriate weighting factors, wT, from table A.2, and then summed, the result will be the internal component of the annual committed effective dose equivalent E(τ):
[73 FR 61288, Oct. 15, 2008]
['Waste']
['Special Waste']
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