Under New Proposal, Radioactive Waste could End Up in St. Clair County Landfill

摘要

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a rule change that could result in burying nuclear waste in municipal and county dumps, such as the St. Clair County Landfill. The NRC oversees non-military uses of nuclear power, as well as nuclear materials used in industry, academia and medical settings; it is also charged with safely transporting, storing and disposing of nuclear waste. The dangers of such a change in policy - what the NRC is calling a new "interpretation of its low-level radioactive waste disposal regulations" in the Federal Register where the proposal was announced March 6 -are numerous. Like exposure to lead, there is no safe level of exposure to radioactivity for humans. OSHA recommends keeping human exposure to radiation to "As Low As Reasonably Achievable," which the agency refers to by the acronym ALARA.