The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (1978) is a
United States environmental law that amended the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2011–2021, 2022-2286i, 2296a-2297h-13, is a United States federal law that covers for the development, regulation, and disposal of nuclear materials and facilities in the United States.
It was an ...
and authorized the
Environmental Protection Agency to establish health and environmental standards for the stabilization,
restoration, and disposal of
uranium mill waste. Title 1 of the Act required the EPA to set environmental protection standards consistent with the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the primary federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.United States. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. , , ''et seq., ...
, including
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
protection limits; the
Department of Energy to implement EPA standards and provide perpetual care for some sites; and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the ...
to review cleanups and license sites to states or the DOE for perpetual care.
Title 1 established a uranium mill remedial action program jointly funded by the federal government and the state.
Title 1 of the Act also designated 22 inactive uranium mill sites for
remediation, resulting in the containment of 40 million
cubic yard
A cubic yard (symbol yd3)IEEE Std 260.1-2004 is an Imperial unit, imperial / U.S. customary unit, U.S. customary (non-SI non-Metric system, metric) unit of volume used in Canada and the United States. It is defined as the volume of a cube with sid ...
s of low-level
radioactive material
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ...
in UMTRCA Title 1 holding cells.
Limitations
The act was written in the "hectic final days" of the 95th U.S. Congress and contained multiple errors that made it "a nightmare of
statutory construction," and required remedial legislation to fix.
The act perpetuated the "Agreement State" program, established in 1959, in which the
Atomic Energy Commission gave regulatory authority of certain nuclear materials to states. It was unclear how much regulatory power Agreement states had, and as a result these states took little regulatory action. Sites that were owned by the federal government, the NRC, or Agreement states were ineligible for remedial action under the UMTRCA, as they were instead the responsibility of the government agencies or states who owned them.
See also
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Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action
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Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...
References
External links
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{{United States environmental law
Waste legislation in the United States
Radioactive waste
1978 in American law
United States federal energy legislation
95th United States Congress
1978 in the environment