Current status of the development of international exemption principles

For the past several years, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been investigating the possibility of exempting certain radiation sources and practices from regulatory control. Initial efforts were conducted under the general heading of de minimis. Interest in this topic arises from international recognition that a significant fraction of the wastes from industry, research, medicine, and the nuclear fuel cycle are contaminated to such low levels that applying regulatory controls may be unwarranted. The IAEA evaluation has been conducted by Advisory Groups considering two interrelated topics: to establish principles for exemption, and to apply the principles to various areas of waste management. The IAEA Advisory Groups developed the criteria from modeled assessments of the potential radiation exposure pathways and scenarios for individuals and population groups following the unrestricted release of radioactive materials. Although the scenarios and models used by the IAEA are necessarily generic, consultants to the Advisory Groups attempted to identify the most important radiation exposure pathways based on available literature. This approach is intended to provide the basic framework for the numerical derivation of generic exempt quantities that would be conservative in most situations. This paper discusses the current status of the IAEA's efforts on the subject of exemption and presents the generic results expressed as overall exemption limits for municipal wastes and materials for recycle and reuse