[ RadSafe ] NRC News Announcement: NRC, States to Coordinate Increased Controls over Rad Material

[John Jacobus]

I received this through another list server.  The
following can be found at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2005/05-123.pdf

No. 05-123 September 6, 2005

NRC, STATES TO COORDINATE INCREASED CONTROLS
OVER RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the 33 Agreement
States are coordinating efforts to
increase the control of radioactive materials that
could potentially be of use to terrorists.

“We believe we have been successful in establishing an
approach that achieves the common
objective of the NRC and the Agreement States of
enhancing controls over certain radioactive
materials and enhancing the protection of public
health and safety,” NRC Chairman Nils J. Diaz said.
“This approach will leverage federal and state
resources most effectively to increase protection and
accountability of these materials.”

Under the Atomic Energy Act, the NRC has signed
agreements with 33 states, relinquishing to
the states responsibility for regulating radioactive
materials used in academia, industry and medicine.
The Agreement States regulate approximately 17,000
materials licensees, of which an estimated 1,650
will be affected by the new requirements. About 550 of
the 5,000 NRC licensees in the remaining 17
states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also
will be affected. The NRC retains exclusive
authority over nuclear power plants, fuel cycle
facilities and research reactors; those licensees are
not affected by this decision.

Over approximately the next 90 days, affected NRC
licensees will receive Orders from the
agency spelling out increased controls for certain
radioactive materials. Over the same period,
individual Agreement States will issue their licensees
legally binding requirements essentially identical
to the NRC’s Orders. Materials covered by these
requirements will be consistent with the International
Atomic Energy Agency’s Code of Conduct for the Safety
and Security of Radioactive Materials, which
is the internationally recognized standard for
categorizing and protecting radioactive materials.

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"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea and never shrinks back to its original proportion." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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