NUREG-1556 - Informational Note

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has amended its regulations to implement its jurisdiction over accelerator-produced radioactive materials and discrete sources of radium-226, as required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). This amendment to the regulations is often referred to as the NARM Rule. The NARM final rule was published on October 1, 2007 and went into effect on November 30, 2007. 72 FR 55864.

As part of the effort to draft the NARM Rule, the NRC also evaluated the need to revise certain licensing guidance to provide necessary guidance to applicants in preparing license applications to include the use of the newly added radioactive materials as byproduct material. Two NUREG-1556 documents were revised to provide additional guidance to licensees: (1) NUREG 1556, Volume 13, Revision 1, and (2) NUREG-1556, Volume 9, Revision 2. Additionally, a new NUREG-1556 volume was developed, Volume 21, to address production of radioactive material using an accelerator.

There are other volumes in the NUREG-1556 series that may be impacted by the NARM Rule, such as Volumes 7, 8, 12, 16, 18, and 20. There may be statements in these NUREG volumes that do not accurately reflect the requirements in the above referenced NARM rule, such as NRC not having authority over accelerator-produced material. The NRC plans to revise these volumes in the future as resources allow. The reader is directed to the NARM Toolbox for further information, which can be found at https://scp.nrc.gov/narmtoolbox.html.