Final Rule Incorporates Radiation Standard For Proposed Yucca Mountain Repository

摘要

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Feb. 17 its approval of a final rule incorporating a radiation exposure standard that applies exclusively to the proposed repository for high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.rnThe final NRC rule retains the Environmental Protection Agency standard dose limit for individuals of 15 millirem for the first 10,000 years after disposal of radioactive waste in the proposed repository, according to the announcement.rnIt also adopts EPA's 100 millirem dose limit for the period after 10,000 years and up to 1 million years, according to NRC.rnIt is the only federal standard ever to be developed for such a time period.rnUnder a mandate of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, EPA was charged with developing the standard in accordance with findings of the National Academy of Sciences.rnThe law also required NRC to make its final regulations consistent with the EPA standard for Yucca Mountain.rnRule Long Delayed Due to Legal Challenge. Although NRC proposed the rule in August 2005, its was based on an earlier EPA radiation standard that was challenged in court and had to be revised.rnThe EPA standard was originally promulgated in June 2001, and a legal challenge resulted in its being overturned in July 2004 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (35 ER 1516, 7/16/04).rnThe final EPA standard was released Sept. 30, 2008 (39 ER 1975, 10/3/08).