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Lack of Federal Opposition to California Legislation



One should not be surprised at the recent success of the Committee to Bridge the Gap's (CBG) lawsuit against the California Department of Health Services (DHS).  The DHS's adoption of the NRC's licence termination rule (LTR) of 25 mrem/y was of course counter to current Sacramento legislation (also authored by CBG) based on zero contamination, zero dose, and zero risk above background. 
 
The NRC's LTR was promulgated after years of public rulemaking and input during the mid-1990s during which CBG failed to submit any comments to NRC.  Thus the 25 mrem/y LTR has indeed received the very public input, and assessment of alternatives, that CBG demanded in its lawsuit.
 
To its credit, the NRC submitted a letter to DHS, expressing its concern over the pending California legislation.  However I do not believe the NRC has written letters directly to the California Senate opposing the bills.
 
Again to its credit, the US Navy has written to the California Senate and Governor Gray Davis opposing SB 1444, SB 1623 and SB 2065.
 
However, as of today, the Department of Energy has been silent on the matter.  This is especially surprising, since in April 2002, they issued a draft DOE G 441.1-XX, "Control and Release of Property with Residual Radioactive Material", which reiterated DOE's support for established cleanup standards, including NRC's 25 mrem/y LTR and Regulatory Guide 1.86 surface contamination limits.
 
As of today, the EPA has also been silent on the matter.  This is especially surprising since both SB 1444 and SB 1623 require more stringent cleanup standards than even the lower end of EPA's CERCLA Superfund risk range of 10-6 to 10-4.  If EPA released a Superfund site in California to its most strict 10-6 risk level, SB 1444 would still require deed restrictions, and both bills would still require any material transferred from the site to be disposed of as LLRW to a licensed LLRW disposal facilty.  The California legislation therefore usurps all EPA Superfund authority.
 
If any NRC, DOE, DOD or EPA radsafers know of any other official opposition to this California legislation by our federal government, please let us all know.

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Phil Rutherford
mail@philrutherford.com
www.philrutherford.com
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