Regulation of Federal Radioactive Waste Activities: Summary of Report to Congress on Extending the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Licensing or Regulatory Authority to Federal Radioactive Waste Storage and Disposal Activities

摘要

The NRC Authorization Bill for Fiscal 1979 directed NRC to conduct a study of extending the Commission's licensing or regulatory authority to include categories of existing and future Federal radioactive waste storage and disposal activities not presently subject to such authority. The report summarizes the results of that study. The NRC study has attempted to present a general comparison of the relative hazards associated with defense-generated and commercial wastes. Options for extending Commission authority were developed and analyzed. The implications of NEPA were analyzed in the context of these options. The national security implications of extending NRC's regulatory authority over DOE programs are examined and evaluated. Costs and benefits are identified and assessed. The Commission's recommendations, based on the study, are to extend licensing authority over new DOE disposal activities involving transuranic wastes and non-defense low-level waste and to initiate a pilot program to test the feasibility of NRC playing a consultative role in the evaluation of existing DOE activities.