E.P.A. Issues Final Yucca Mountain Radiation Requirements

(9/30/08) E.P.A. has established radiation requirements for the suggested spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

E.P.A. is required to set requirements consistent with the findings and recommendations of the Countrywide Academy of Sciences (NAS) and satisfy a July 2004 court decision to extend the standards' duration. The Yucca Mountain requirements are in line with approaches used in the international radioactive waste management community. The final requirements will:

• Retain the dose limit of 15 millirem per year for the 1st 10,000 years after disposal;
• Establish a dose limit of 100 millirem yearly exposure per year between 10,000 years and one million years;
• Require the D.O.E. (DOE) to consider the effects of climate change, earthquakes, volcanoes, and corrosion of the waste packages to safely contain the waste during the one million-year period; and
• Be consistent with the recommendations of the NAS by establishing a radiological protection standard for this facility at the time of peak dose up to one million years after disposal.

Human exposure to radiation varies from natural sources, such as radon and ultraviolet radiation from the sun, and other sources, such as medical X-rays. The average yearly radiation exposure from both naturally occurring and manmade sources for a person living in the U.S. has been estimated to be 360 millirem per year.

EPA, D.O.E. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission perform different functions related to Yucca Mountain. To learn more about this action and the roles of the 3 federal agencies, visit: epa.gov/radiation/yucca

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