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Re: Revision of Atomic Energy Act - NRC to Regulate Accelerator Produced?
In a message dated 10/26/2004 3:57:07 AM Pacific Standard Time,
michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu writes:
Given the sponsor of the bill, I suspect other motivations. Barbara
Hamrick is on the Legislation & Regulation Committee - Barbara what is
known about this, and what is the HPS position on it, if any?
This actually has been on the back burner for a long time. The NRC was
asked to look at the issue back in 2001. It was written up in SECY 01-0224,
which I can't find on the NRC site anymore, although I haven't checked ADAMS.
The bill contains the two primary statements that I recall in the old SECY
paper; i.e., adding: discrete sources of radium (e.g., aircraft dials and the
like), and accelerator-produced material that is extracted for commercial use
(e.g., F-18 from a cyclotron for distribution to PET imaging centers). The
mechanism would be to amend the definition of byproduct material to add these
two types of material.
The HPS Legislation and Regulation Committee is looking at this legislation,
and may propose amendments, based on concerns about the loss of some sites
to states outside the Rocky Mountain and Northwest Compacts for disposal of
radium, if passed as written. The NRC proposed amendments in an attempt to
cure this, and those proposed amendments are contained in the 9/14/04 testimony
at:
_http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/congress-docs/congress-testimony/2004/_
(http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/congress-docs/congress-testimony/2004/) .
The States will also be looking at this through the Conference of Radiation
Control Program Directors and the Organization of Agreement States, as well as
on an individual basis.
I am not sure what the current motivation for bringing this to the fore
right now is; however, I might speculate that it has some "security" nexus, as
almost everything does nowadays.
Barbara