An Update on Clearance Initiatives in the United States

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jas Devgun ◽  
Harold Peterson ◽  
Cheryl Trottier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
National Standards ◽  
National Standard ◽  
Solid Materials ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
The U.S

A number of initiatives have been underway in the United States in the past several years in the area of clearance of solid materials both at the federal level and at the industry and professional society level. Clearance of solid materials is an issue that has significant economic consequences for decommissioning projects where large quantities of such materials are generated. The cost of treating these materials as low-level radioactive waste (LLW) is prohibitive. A regulatory mechanism could remove economic burdens on such projects while maintaining the public health and safety standards. At the federal level major initiatives are being undertaken by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also taken some steps in this area under their Clean Materials Program. In the private sector, the nuclear industry is active through the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). The Health Physics Society (HPS) prepared the ANSI/HPS N13.12 standard about four years ago, which has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has recently released a Position Statement on the clearance of licensed materials from nuclear sites and the Society has been active in the national deliberations on this subject. The National Academies (NA) conducted a study for the NRC on alternatives for controlling the release of solid materials and their report was issued in 2002. The steel and concrete industries have also participated in the NRC rulemaking process and are opposed to any release standards for materials that may have residual radioactivity on them. This was clear from industry representatives at the stakeholder workshops conducted by the NRC as a part of the enhanced rulemaking effort. A review of all these initiatives shows the intensity of the debate but it also highlights the need for one national standard, preferably dose based, thus allowing site-specific application through derived radioactivity limits. Thus, interagency cooperation and agreement are necessary at the federal level. Consensus is necessary with standard writing organizations, professional societies, public and other stakeholders. This paper provides an overview of the developments in the United States in the area of clearance of solid materials, a brief comparison to international activities, and a discussion of key points for consensus building that is necessary for any initiative to succeed.

Abstract 16822: Dust Storms in the United States are Associated With Increased Cardiovascular Mortality

Circulation ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 132 (suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James L Crooks ◽  
Wayne Cascio ◽  
Madelyn Percy ◽  
Jeanette Reyes ◽  
Lucas Neas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Cardiovascular Mortality ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Ambient Particulate Matter ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
The U.S

Introduction: Extreme weather events such as dust storms are predicted to become more frequent as the global climate warms through the 21st century. Studies of Asian, Saharan, Arabian, and Australian dust storms have found associations with cardiovascular and total non-accidental mortality and hospitalizations for stroke. However, the only population-level epidemiological work on dust storms in the United States was focused on a single small metropolitan area (Spokane, WA), and it is uncertain whether its null results are representative of the country as a whole. Hypothesis: Dust storms in the United States are associated with daily cardiovascular mortality. Methods: Dust storm incidence data (N=141), including date and approximate location, as well as meteorological station observations, were taken from the U.S. National Weather Service. County-level mortality data for the years 1993-2005 were acquired from the National Center for Health Statistics. Ambient particulate matter monitor concentrations were obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Inference was performed used conditional logistic regression models under a case-crossover design while accounting for the nonlinear effect of temperature. Results: We found a 9.5% increase in cardiovascular mortality at a two-day lag (95% CI: [0.31%,19.5%], p = 0.042). The results were robust to adjusting for heat waves and ambient particulate matter concentrations. Analysis of storms occurring only on days with <0.1 inches of precipitation strengthened these results and in addition yielded a mean daily increase of 4.0% across lags 0-5 (95% CI: [0.07%,20.8%], p = 0.046). In Arizona, the U.S. state with the largest number of storms, we observed a 13.0% increase at a three-day lag (CI: [0.40%,27.1%], p = 0.043). Conclusions: Dust storms in the U.S. are associated with increases in lagged cardiovascular mortality. This has implications for the development of public health advisories and suggests that further public health interventions may be needed. Disclaimer: This work does not represent official U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy.

Crackdown

2020 ◽  
pp. 88-109
Author(s):  
Russell Crandall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Legal System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pharmaceutical Market ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
American Legal System ◽  
The U.S

This chapter recounts how the United States in the nineteenth century permitted considerable personal freedom of choice regarding drugs, citing the idiosyncrasies of the U.S. Constitution that helped ensure potent forms of opium, cocaine, and cannabis remained widely available nationwide. It talks about how the American legal system made states responsible for regulating drugs, particularly opium and cannabis, on their own turf. It also discusses how most states and several major cities by 1910 had anti-drug laws wherein ritual police raids were a hallmark of the states' haphazard enforcement schemes. The chapter recounts the first efforts at drug control at the federal level, which were designed not to break up underground dealer networks but to regulate the runaway pharmaceutical market. It refers to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, which simply mandated that certain active ingredients meet standardized purity requirements and forced drug makers to label in a clear way any of ten ingredients considered unsafe.

Field Decontamination and Triage in Chemical Emergencies

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Constance J. Doyle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Hazardous Materials ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Environmental Cleanup ◽  
Materials Handling ◽  
Toxic Materials ◽  
The U.S

Triage and rescue of casualties from accidents involving hazardous materials is a challenge for many emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. With very toxic materials, the untrained and unprepared rescuer may become a victim. In addition, few hospitals in the United States have decontamination units attached to their emergency departments and emergency department personnel may become exposed if the casualty is not decontaminated. Many environmental cleanup teams, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) team, are well trained in materials handling but are not immediately available when a hazardous materials spill with personal injuries occurs.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Nuclear Materials Retrieval Programs of the United States Department of Energy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaatrin Abbott ◽  
Zachary Geroux
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Material ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Nuclear Materials ◽  
United States Department

Abstract The Atomic Energy Act, as amended, authorizes the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies to distribute nuclear materials to public or private institutions for the purposes of education as well as research and development. Significant transformations throughout the nuclear industry have led to changes in programmatic responsibility for loaned nuclear materials. DOE has established several programs to catalog, transfer ownership, retrieve, and/or dispose of these loaned nuclear materials. The variety of loaned nuclear material types, as well as operational and regulatory variations between facility licensees have created unique challenges for the retrieval and dispositioning processes. These include packaging and transportation, confirmation of regulatory jurisdiction, property transfer, and disposal of sources with no remaining economic value. This paper explores the methods and actions taken by DOE to address these challenges. Lessons learned and best practices identified from these programs are also presented.

Atoms for Peace in Latin America

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Mateos ◽  
Edna Suárez-Díaz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Atomic Energy ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
The U.S

On December 8, 1953, in the midst of increasing nuclear weapons testing and geopolitical polarization, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace initiative. More than a pacifist program, the initiative is nowadays seen as an essential piece in the U.S. defense strategy and foreign policy at the beginning of the Cold War. As such, it pursued several ambitious goals, and Latin America was an ideal target for most of them: to create political allies, to ease fears of the deadly atomic energy while fostering receptive attitudes towards nuclear technologies, to control and avoid development of nuclear weapons outside the United States and its allies, and to open or redirect markets for the new nuclear industry. The U.S. Department of State, through the Foreign Operations Administration, acted in concert with several domestic and foreign middle-range actors, including people at national nuclear commissions, universities, and industrial funds, to implement programs of regional technical assistance, education and training, and technological transfer. Latin American countries were classified according to their stage of nuclear development, with Brazil at the top and Argentina and Mexico belonging to the group of “countries worthy of attention.” Nuclear programs often intersected with development projects in other areas, such as agriculture and public health. Moreover, Eisenhower’s initiative required the recruitment of local actors, natural resources and infrastructures, governmental funding, and standardized (but localized techno-scientific) practices from Latin American countries. As Atoms for Peace took shape, it began to rely on newly created multilateral and regional agencies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations and the Inter-American Nuclear Energy Commission (IANEC) of the Organization of American States (OAS). Nevertheless, as seen from Latin America, the implementation of atomic energy for peaceful purposes was reinterpreted in different ways in each country. This fact produced different outcomes, depending on the political, economic, and techno-scientific expectations and interventions of the actors involved. It provided, therefore, an opportunity to create local scientific elites and infrastructure. Finally, the peaceful uses of atomic energy allowed the countries in the region to develop national and international political discourses framing the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean signed in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, in 1967, which made Latin America the first atomic weapons–free populated zone in the world.

scholarly journals Drop Test Results for the Combustion Engineering Model No. ABB-2901 Fuel Pellet Shipping Package

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald S. Hafner ◽  
Gerald C. Mok ◽  
Lisle G. Hagler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Preliminary Test ◽  
Nuclear Regulatory Commission ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Drop Test ◽  
Regulatory Commission ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) contracted with the Packaging Review Group (PRG) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to conduct a single, 30-ft shallow-angle drop test on the Combustion Engineering ABB-2901 drum-type shipping package. The purpose of the test was to determine if bolted-ring drum closures could fail during shallow-angle drops. The PRG at LLNL planned the test, and Defense Technologies Engineering Division (DTED) personnel from LLNL’s Site-300 Test Group executed the plan. The test was conducted in November 2001 using the drop-tower facility at LLNL’s Site 300. Two representatives from Westinghouse Electric Company in Columbia, South Carolina (WEC-SC); two USNRC staff members; and three PRG members from LLNL witnessed the preliminary test runs and the final test. The single test clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of the bolted-ring drum closure to shallow-angle drops—the test package’s drum closure was easily and totally separated from the drum package. The results of the preliminary test runs and the 30-ft shallow-angle drop test offer valuable qualitative understandings of the shallow-angle impact. • A drum package with a bolted-ring closure may be vulnerable to closure failure by the shallow-angle drop, even if results of the steep-angle drop demonstrate that the package is resistant to similar damage. • Although there exist other mechanisms, the shallow-angle drop produces closure failure mainly by buckling the drum lid and separating the drum lid and body, which the bolted ring cannot prevent. • Since the closure failure by the shallow-angle drop is generated mainly by structural instabilities of a highly discontinuous joint, the phenomenon can be rather unpredictable. Thus, a larger-than-normal margin of safety is recommended for the design of such packages. • The structural integrity of the bolted-ring drum closure design depends on a number of factors. To ensure that the drum closure survives the shallow-angle drop, the following general qualitative rules should be observed: – The drum closure components should be quality products made of ductile materials, and the torque value for tightening the bolted ring should be included in the SAR and operating procedures to ensure quality. – The package should not be too heavy. – The package internal structure should be impact-absorbent and resistant to disintegration and collapse under high compressive load. However, a strong internal structure may defeat the purpose of protecting the containment vessel from damage during a free drop. • If not previously tested, drum packages with bolted-ring drum closures should be drop-tested at shallow angles. Due to the unpredictable nature of the behavior, the demonstration should be completed by test and on a case-by-case basis. The test plan should take into account the behavior’s sensitivity to the details of the package design and the impact condition. • Because the shallow-angle drop can open the drum closure, organizations using these types of drum packages should assess the consequences of exposing the radioactive contents in the containment vessel to unconsidered external elements or conditions. This work was supported by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission under a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Department of Energy, and performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48.

Occurrence of Viruses in Treated Drinking Water in the United States

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 689-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmer W. Akin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Virus Detection ◽  
Enteric Virus ◽  
Viral Disease ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contaminated Drinking Water ◽  
Treated Drinking Water ◽  
The U.S

Health concerns regarding waterborne transmission of enteric viruses began to develop around 1940 in the United States (U.S.) with the isolation of poliovirus from human feces and sewage. The implication of these isolations for the transmission of viral disease through contaminated drinking water stimulated research on methodology for virus detection, recovery and assessment from water. Although virus methods research is still an important area of study, relatively sensitive procedures became available during the past decade for recovering many enteric virus types from large-volume samples of drinking water. Controversy surrounded many of the early reported isolations of viruses from treated drinking water using these procedures due to the suspicion of laboratory contamination. The occurrence of viruses in drinking water treated by currently accepted procedures has still not been proven by the U.S. experience although the likelihood may be gaining support. However, a virus survey of 54 water supplies and extensive studies of two water systems by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not demonstrate viral contamination of treated water derived from surface sources.

The United States Department of Energy/United States Environmental Protection Agency Sludge Irradiation Program

1983 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Sivinski ◽  
S Ahlstrom ◽  
W McMullen ◽  
J Yeager
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
United States Department ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Areas ◽  
Cesium 137 ◽  
Future Plans ◽  
Program Research

Gamma radiation from cesium-137 has been shown to be effective in reducing pathogens in sewage sludge to levels where reuse of the material in public areas meets current regulatory criteria for protection of the public health. A 7,250-kilogram per day pilot plant is in operation and full-scale demonstration facilities are being developed. This paper discusses program research and engineering history related to sludge irradiation, as well as current activities and future plans.

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