The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) have jointly published final guidance
on the testing requirements for mixed radioactive and hazardous
waste (mixed waste) in the Federal Register on November 20, 1997
(62 FR 62079 - 62094).
The guidance offers two strategies for helping to maintain radiation
exposures As Low As is Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) if testing
is required. These strategies are the use of a sample size of
less than 100 grams, as long as the resulting test is sufficiently
sensitive to measure the constituents of interest at the regulatory
levels prescribed in the TCLP, and the use of surrogate materials,
as long as they are chemically identical to the mixed waste and
faithfully represent the hazardous constituents in the waste mixture.
The guidance also discusses other allowable sampling and testing
procedures, such as representative drum sampling, or sampling
from drums containing lower concentrations of radioactive material,
as long as the chemical contents are identical to those found
in the drums with higher concentrations of radioactive material.
This report involves identifying and reporting on new and innovative
technologies for the treatment of mixed waste. The resulting report
summarizes seventeen different technologies that either hold potential
for mixed waste treatment or currently treat mixed waste. This
report does NOT include evaluations or detailed information on
mixed waste technologies. Instead, it is a summary of the seventeen
separate technologies, compiled with two general goals in mind.
The first goal is to give the reader background information, in
relatively simple terms, on an individual technology and serve
as a quick reference or starting point for research on that technology.
The second goal is to provide a sense of the types of technologies
under development for mixed waste treatment.
This document contains suggested guidelines to minimize the
cross-media transfer of contaminants during cleanup activities.
It was developed in response to concerns that some cleanup activities
may unintentionally cause additional contamination through cross-media
transfer of contaminants. Stakeholders involved in the development
of the proposed Hazardous Waste Identification Rule for contaminated
media (HWIR-media) specifically raised this concern to EPA. The
Agency expects that this guidance will be of use in many contexts,
including Superfund cleanups, RCRA Subtitle C corrective action,
UST corrective action, and state cleanups. If any of the recommendations
provided in this guidance causes a conflict with a state or Federal
regulation, such conflict is unintentional, and the applicable
regulation should be followed.
The guide is designed to give easy access to critical information
on applied technologies that address radioactive contamination
in solid and liquid media. The solid media includes soils, sediment,
sludge, and solid waste, but does not include buildings and structures.
The liquid media include groundwater, surface water, and waste
water. This information is presented in technology profiles that
can be used to screen and compare technologies for site-specific
application.
This report details the volumes and characteristics of EPA
laboratory generated mixed waste over a three year period. The
report also outlines a suggested EPA laboratory generated mixed
waste integrated waste management framework based on current
research and documentation for improving EPA waste management
and minimization efforts.
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Radiation
and Indoor Air (ORIA) and the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office
of Environmental Restoration (EM-40) investigated technical issues
related to treatment processes for low-level radioactive and mixed
wastes. On September 6-7, 1995, EPA/ORIA hosted a conference in
Arlington, Virginia, to assemble data on these processes into
a form that will be readily comprehensible to decision makers.
This document contains a prose summary to describe the status
of each process that was presented during the conference.
This guidance is designed to assist persons currently storing
mixed waste to meet the regulatory requirements of both the AEA
and RCRA. The guidance describes procedures that are generally
acceptable to both NRC and EPA that resolves issues of concern
which have been identified to the agencies by licensees. Public
comment on this Draft Guidance Document closed on November 6,
1995. Comments received are currently being reviewed by both Agencies.
This living document supports sampling and analytical activities
for the evaluation of environmental and waste management samples
from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites. DOE Methods is the
result of extensive cooperation from all DOE analytical laboratories.
This document encompasses methods for collecting representative
samples and for determining the radioisotope activity and organic
and inorganic composition of a sample.
This informational fact sheet from the U.S. Occupational Safety
and Health Adminstration is intended to provide a generic, non-exhaustive
overview of industrial hygiene.
HSWA restricted the land disposal of hazardous wastes, including
mixed waste, and imposed deadlines. This joint guidance explains
the land disposal restrictions (LDR's) on storage and disposal
of commercial mixed waste.
This letter, jointly signed by NRC and EPA, sets out the fundamental
definition for NRC/EPA low-level mixed waste. A methodology to
identify those wastes that are mixed is laid out. Anticipated
questions by licensees are answered.
This document focused on issues for State low level waste compacts
that might be considering developing commercial mixed waste disposal
sites. This guidance was generic, though, for any disposal site
receiving NRC/EPA mixed waste.
Presented in this document is a conceptual design that both
meets EPA's minimum technology requirements for liners and leachate
collection systems while satisfying NRC's requirement for minimization
of waste contact with groundwater. While RCRA disposal site designs
focus on reduction of short-term risk, assuming institutional
control and maintenance, NRC focuses on long-term risk with designs
that are free of institutional control and maintenance. This joint
guidance was intended to create a mutually acceptable design.
You can also try the National
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NSCEP is the largest repository of Agency publications with
more than 5500 available titles, including paper and electronic
versions available for distribution.
