Application of exemption principles to the recycle and reuse of materials from nuclear facilities

Radioactive waste is generated from the production of nuclear energy and from the use of radioactive materials in industrial applications, research and medicine. The importance of the safe management of radioactive waste for the protection of human health and the environment has long been recognized and considerable experience has been gained in this field. The Radioactive Waste Safety Standards (RADWASS) programme is the IAEA's contribution to establishing and promoting, in a coherent and comprehensive manner, the basic safety philosophy for radioactive waste management and the steps necessary to ensure its implementation. The RADWASS publications will: (a) reflect the existing international consensus in the approaches and methodologies for safe waste management, including disposal, and provide mechanisms to establish consensus where it does not yet exist; and (b) provide Member States with a comprehensive series of internationally agreed upon documents to assist in the derivation of new, or to complement existing, national criteria, standards and practices. This Safety Practices publication is concerned with procedures for determining the levels of radionuclides in materials below which they can be exempted from regulatory control and recycled or reused without any further restriction. It describes how the internationally agreed upon principles for exemption can be applied in the case of recycle and reuse. The methodology is applied to derive the typical ranges of exempt concentrations for representative radionuclides. Refs, figs and tabs