News Archive

Scott O. Schwahn, CHP, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Though quantities of radioactive materials considered exempt by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are specified in Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 30.71 (10CFR30.71), not all Agreement States (states that have agreed to regulate activities themselves that would otherwise be regulated directly by the NRC) have exempt values that match the NRC's values.

There are six categories of compatibility into which NRC program elements are placed, which describe the importance and impact of the need for state-to-state compatibility. One might expect that the choice of exempt values would fall under Category B, or "program elements that cross jurisdictional boundaries and that should be addressed to ensure uniformity of regulation on a nationwide basis." However, there are numerous discrepancies in 11 states' regulations that could cause problems with either incoming or outgoing radioactive materials.

This link provides a more detailed explanation of the discrepancies along with hyperlinks to each state's regulation regarding exempt radioactive materials as of the time of this article.