Re: NRC Licensing of Am-241

[David W Lee <lee_david_w@lanl.gov>]

Tad:
        Hopefully an NRC licensing expert will respond to your question with
a more definitive answer.  In the meantime, here's my attempt.  In general,
the NRC is authorized to regulate only byproduct, source, and special
nuclear material.  The NRC is not authorized to regulate
accelerator-produced material or radium.  Obviously, Am-241 is not byproduct
or source material, and it would appear as if Am-241 does fit or fall under
the NRC's definition of SNM (10 CFRR 70.2); however, the rub is that Am-241
typically is "produced" from the beta decay of Pu-241, which, itself, is
SNM.  Thus, it will be interesting to follow this thread to see whether and
if any NRC licensing experts grapple with the issue of whether or not the
NRC has any licensing authority over Am-241.  While I am not an NRC
licensing expert, I would guess that the NRC in effect gets into the
licensing business of Am-241 through the back door by asserting that since
Pu-241 is SNM and it beta decays to Am-241, it is unlikely that you could
ever get Am-241 in PURE form, free of the SNM isotope Pu-241; hence, you
need an NRC license to possess/process Am-241.   The reason you do not find
Am-241 listed in Schedule B of Part 30 is that this schedule, to my
understaning, constitutes a complete listing of all of the BYPRODUCT
material isotopes that the NRC regulates.  Am-241, not being byproduct
material, therefore, is not listed in this Schedule.  You are correct in
stating that Am-241 (0.05 microcuries) is rather parenthetically mentioned
in 10 CFR 30.15.  I surmise that since this pargraph of the federal law
deals with commercially available instruments that contain radioactive
material for internal calibration/standardization, that since the NRC knew
that some of these instruments already contained small Am-241 sources (like
smoke detectors), that it (the NRC) was obligated to put this wording into
this section of the federal law to in effect state that it (the NRC) was not
going to get into the licensing business (not going to regulate) owners of
these instruments that contained Am-241.  For any NRC licensing experts who
choose to respond to your question, should they consider the above
information that I have provided to you to be incorrect or incomplete,
please straighten out any of my brain cramps in this regard by contacting me
at lee_david_w@lanl.gov.  REGARDS



At 07:43 AM 24-10-96 -0500, you wrote:
>Can anyone tell me why Americium-241 is not listed in 10CFR30.71, Schedule B?
>
>I know that it is mentioned in 30.15 at 0.05 microcuries for sources in
>ionizing radiation measureing instruments.  
>
>Since it's not listed, does this mean that "ANY" amount of Am-241 must be
>licensed by the NRC?
>
>**************************** /^\   /^\ *********************************
>Tad  Blanchard              /__ \ /___\    NASA-Goddard Space Flt Ctr 
>Nat'l Health Svc, Inc            O             Greenbelt, Maryland     
>Sr Health Physics Tech          / \            Phone: 301-286-9157     
>                               /___\           Fax:   301-286-1618       
>                  Tad.M.Blanchard.1@GSFC.NASA.gov                   
>************************************************************************ 
>
>
>
David W. Lee
Radiation Protection Policy
& Programs Analysis Group (ESH-12)
Los Alamos National Laboratory
PO Box 1663, MS K483
Los Alamos, NM  87545
Ph:  (505) 667-8085
FAX: (505) 667-9726