U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Effluent Reporting Requirement Per 10 CFR 20.405 (a), "Reports of Overexposu res and Excessive Levels and Concentrations"
HPPOS-052 PDR-9111210224
Title: Effluent Reporting Requirement Per 10 CFR 20.405
(a), "Reports of Overexposures and Excessive Levels and
Concentrations"
See the letter from T. F. Dorian to A. Mattox (Brandeis
University) dated December 21, 1979. It is an OELD opinion
that 10 CFR 20.405 (a) requires a report on effluent
release only if the releases exceed 10 times the limit in
10 CFR 20.106 or in the license when averaged over one
year. Limits in Technical Specifications were not
addressed in this OELD opinion. The health physics
position was written in the context of 10 CFR 20.106,
20.201, and 20.405, but it also applies to the "new" 10 CFR
Part 20, Sections 20.1302, 20.1501, and 20.2203.
10 CFR Part 20 was promulgated to establish precautionary
requirements for personnel monitoring, posting of areas and
containers where radiation or radioactive materials exist,
radiation surveying, record keeping, storage of radioactive
materials, instruction of personnel, and reporting of
radiation overexposure, accidents, and loss or theft of
licensed material. The regulation does not specify
detailed procedures to be followed in meeting safety
standards in most cases, but individual licenses may, and
usually do, contain special safety requirements and
conditions necessitated by the particular situation.
Radiation exposure of personnel is controlled through the
licensee's ability to control access to its facility and to
direct the actions of individuals within the facility and
by protective equipment, devices, and procedures.
Exposures to the public are controlled by limiting the
quantity and concentration of radioactive material that may
be released to areas not controlled by the licensee.
The sections and appendixes incorporating limits on
radiation levels and concentrations of radioactive material
are designed to assure that individuals in "unrestricted
areas" do not receive exposure in excess of 10% of the
limits established for persons exposed in restricted areas.
For this purpose, these regulations limit levels of
radiation and concentrations of radioactive material that
may be created in unrestricted areas by licensees, without
special authorization from NRC, to extremely low levels.
These levels are believed to be sufficiently low to assure
that there is no reasonable probability to individuals in
unrestricted areas receiving exposures in excess of 10% of
the permissible levels for restricted areas under any
circumstance. Moreover, as a precautionary procedure, 10
CFR 20.201 [or 10 CFR 20.1501] requires licensees to make
(or have made for them) such surveys (and with such
frequency) as may be necessary to comply with the
regulations in Part 20.
Within this scheme, section 10 CFR 20.405 (a) [or 10 CFR
20.2203 (a)] requires written reports within 30 days of
levels of radiation or concentrations of radioactive
material in an unrestricted area in excess of ten times any
applicable limit set forth in Part 20 or in the license.
The applicable limits in Part 20 are listed in Table II of
Appendix B to 10 CFR 20 §§20.1-20.601) [and Table 2 of
Appendix B to 10 CFR 20 (§§20.1001-20.2401)] and are
modified to the extent that 10 CFR 20.106 [and 10 CFR
20.1302 (b)] allows a licensee to average concentrations
over a period not greater than one year. Thus, 10 CFR
20.106 and 20.405 [or 10 CFR 20.1302 (b) and 20.2203 (a),
respectively] are complementary; averaging is, in fact,
permitted; and a licensee is not normally required to
report in writing releases of single milliliters of air or
water that exceed by a factor greater than ten the
concentrations specified in Table II of Appendix B to
§§20.1-20.601 [or, at present, Table 2 of Appendix B to
§§20.1001-20.2401].
Each report under 10 CFR 20.405 [or 10 CFR 20.2203]
requires the licensee to "describe the extent of exposure
of individuals to radiation or radioactive material,
including estimates of each individual's exposure...;
levels of radiation and concentrations of radioactive
material involved; the cause of the exposure, levels or
concentrations of radioactive materials involved; and
corrective steps taken or planned to assure against a
recurrence." [Note: 10 CFR 20.2203 requests additional
information such as an individual's dose.] Clearly, the
regulations attempt to ensure that NRC knows about abnormal
conditions at licensees' facilities; that licensees control
their activities, including procedures, equipment and
people, to protect against radiation hazards; and that
every reasonable effort is made to maintain radiation
exposures, and releases of radioactive materials in
effluents to unrestricted areas, as low as is reasonably
achievable.
Regulatory references: 10 CFR 20.106, 10 CFR 20.405, 10
CFR 20.1302, 10 CFR 20.2203
Subject codes: 2.2, 7.3
Applicability: All
