EPA proposes options for control of industrial radioactivity

The US Environmental Protection Agency on February 28 proposed four alternative approaches for controlling radionuclides from a dozen industrial sources. The proposal outlines four alternatives for regulating toxic air pollutant. The proposal is designed to elicit comment on such regulatory issues as: What are acceptable health risks? What are appropriate criteria for establishing a margin of safety? What are the technological feasibility and the costs of regulatory controls? How should uncertainty by considered? EPA intends to use the approach finally selected as the framework for future hazardous-air pollutant-control decisions. Industry uses hundreds of distinct radionuclides in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. Industrial radionuclide emissions occur either as a result of an inability to contain the radioactive materials or as an unintended consequence of other activity, such as radionuclide emissions from mining or milling