Status report on NRC's current below regulatory concern activities

The concept of below regulatory concern (BRC) is not new to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or its predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission. The regulations and licensing decisions have involved limited and de facto decisions on BRC since the beginning. For example, consumer products containing radioactive materials have been approved for distribution to persons exempt from licensing for some time and procedures for survey and release of equipment have traditionally been a part of many licensees' radiation safety programs. However, these actions have generally been ad hoc decisions in response to specific needs and have not been necessarily consistent. The need to deal with this regulatory matter has been receiving attention from both Congress and the NRC Commissioners. NRC response has grown from addressing specific waste streams, to generic rulemaking for wastes, and finally to efforts to develop a broad generic BRC policy. Section 10 of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 addressed NRC actions on specific waste streams. In response, NRC issued guidance on rulemaking petitions for specific wastes. NRC also issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking indicating consideration of Commission initiated regulations to address BRC wastes in a generic manner. The Commissioners have directed staff to develop an umbrella policy for all agency decisions concerning levels of risk or dose that do not require government regulation