40 CFR Appendix A to Part 191 - Appendix A to Part 191—Table for Subpart B

Table 1—Release Limits for Containment Requirements

[Cumulative releases to the accessible environment for 10,000 years after disposal]

Radionuclide	Release limit per 1,000 MTHM or other unit of waste (see notes) (curies)
Americium-241 or -243	100
Carbon-14	100
Cesium-135 or -137	1,000
Iodine-129	100
Neptunium-237	100
Plutonium-238, -239, -240, or -242	100
Radium-226	100
Strontium-90	1,000
Technetium-99	10,000
Thorium-230 or -232	10
Tin-126	1,000
Uranium-233, -234, -235, -236, or -238	100
Any other alpha-emitting radionuclide with a half-life greater than 20 years	100
Any other radionuclide with a half-life greater than 20 years that does not emit alpha particles	1,000

Application of Table 1

Note 1:

Units of Waste. The Release Limits in Table 1 apply to the amount of wastes in any one of the following:

(a) An amount of spent nuclear fuel containing 1,000 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM) exposed to a burnup between 25,000 megawatt-days per metric ton of heavy metal (MWd/MTHM) and 40,000 MWd/MTHM;

(b) The high-level radioactive wastes generated from reprocessing each 1,000 MTHM exposed to a burnup between 25,000 MWd/MTHM and 40,000 MWd/MTHM;

(c) Each 100,000,000 curies of gamma or beta-emitting radionuclides with half-lives greater than 20 years but less than 100 years (for use as discussed in Note 5 or with materials that are identified by the Commission as high-level radioactive waste in accordance with part B of the definition of high-level waste in the NWPA);

(d) Each 1,000,000 curies of other radionuclides (i.e., gamma or beta-emitters with half-lives greater than 100 years or any alpha-emitters with half-lives greater than 20 years) (for use as discussed in Note 5 or with materials that are identified by the Commission as high-level radioactive waste in accordance with part B of the definition of high-level waste in the NWPA); or

(e) An amount of transuranic (TRU) wastes containing one million curies of alpha-emitting transuranic radionuclides with half-lives greater than 20 years.

Note 2:

Release Limits for Specific Disposal Systems. To develop Release Limits for a particular disposal system, the quantities in Table 1 shall be adjusted for the amount of waste included in the disposal system compared to the various units of waste defined in Note 1. For example:

(a) If a particular disposal system contained the high-level wastes from 50,000 MTHM, the Release Limits for that system would be the quantities in Table 1 multiplied by 50 (50,000 MTHM divided by 1,000 MTHM).

(b) If a particular disposal system contained three million curies of alpha-emitting transuranic wastes, the Release Limits for that system would be the quantities in Table 1 multiplied by three (three million curies divided by one million curies).

(c) If a particular disposal system contained both the high-level wastes from 50,000 MTHM and 5 million curies of alpha-emitting transuranic wastes, the Release Limits for that system would be the quantities in Table 1 multiplied by 55:

$\frac{\mathrm{50,000}\text{MTHM}}{\mathrm{1,000}\text{MTHM}}+\frac{\mathrm{5,000,000}\text{curiesTRU}}{\mathrm{1,000,000}\text{curiesTRU}}=55$

Note 3:

Adjustments for Reactor Fuels with Different Burnup. For disposal systems containing reactor fuels (or the high-level wastes from reactor fuels) exposed to an average burnup of less than 25,000 MWd/MTHM or greater than 40,000 MWd/MTHM, the units of waste defined in (a) and (b) of Note 1 shall be adjusted. The unit shall be multiplied by the ratio of 30,000 MWd/MTHM divided by the fuel's actual average burnup, except that a value of 5,000 MWd/MTHM may be used when the average fuel burnup is below 5,000 MWd/MTHM and a value of 100,000 MWd/MTHM shall be used when the average fuel burnup is above 100,000 MWd/MTHM. This adjusted unit of waste shall then be used in determining the Release Limits for the disposal system.

For example, if a particular disposal system contained only high-level wastes with an average burnup of 3,000 MWd/MTHM, the unit of waste for that disposal system would be:

$\mathrm{1,000}\text{MTHM}\times \frac{\left(\mathrm{30,000}\right)}{\left(\mathrm{5,000}\right)}=\mathrm{6,000}\text{MTHM}$

If that disposal system contained the high-level wastes from 60,000 MTHM (with an average burnup of 3,000 MWd/MTHM), then the Release Limits for that system would be the quantities in Table 1 multiplied by ten:

$\frac{\mathrm{60,000}\mathrm{MTHM}}{\mathrm{6,000}\mathrm{MTHM}}=10$

which is the same as:

$\frac{\mathrm{60,000}\text{MTHM}}{\mathrm{1,000}\text{MTHM}}\times \frac{\left(\mathrm{5,000}\mathrm{MWd}/\text{MTHM}\right)}{\left(\mathrm{30,000}\mathrm{MWd}/\text{MTHM}\right)}=10$

Note 4:

Treatment of Fractionated High-Level Wastes. In some cases, a high-level waste stream from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel may have been (or will be) separated into two or more high-level waste components destined for different disposal systems. In such cases, the implementing agency may allocate the Release Limit multiplier (based upon the original MTHM and the average fuel burnup of the high-level waste stream) among the various disposal systems as it chooses, provided that the total Release Limit multiplier used for that waste stream at all of its disposal systems may not exceed the Release Limit multiplier that would be used if the entire waste stream were disposed of in one disposal system.

Note 5:

Treatment of Wastes with Poorly Known Burnups or Original MTHM. In some cases, the records associated with particular high-level waste streams may not be adequate to accurately determine the original metric tons of heavy metal in the reactor fuel that created the waste, or to determine the average burnup that the fuel was exposed to. If the uncertainties are such that the original amount of heavy metal or the average fuel burnup for particular high-level waste streams cannot be quantified, the units of waste derived from (a) and (b) of Note 1 shall no longer be used. Instead, the units of waste defined in (c) and (d) of Note 1 shall be used for such high-level waste streams. If the uncertainties in such information allow a range of values to be associated with the original amount of heavy metal or the average fuel burnup, then the calculations described in previous Notes will be conducted using the values that result in the smallest Release Limits, except that the Release Limits need not be smaller than those that would be calculated using the units of waste defined in (c) and (d) of Note 1.

Note 6:

Uses of Release Limits to Determine Compliance with § 191.13 Once release limits for a particular disposal system have been determined in accordance with Notes 1 through 5, these release limits shall be used to determine compliance with the requirements of § 191.13 as follows. In cases where a mixture of radionuclides is projected to be released to the accessible environment, the limiting values shall be determined as follows: For each radionuclide in the mixture, determine the ratio between the cumulative release quantity projected over 10,000 years and the limit for that radionuclide as determined from Table 1 and Notes 1 through 5. The sum of such ratios for all the radionuclides in the mixture may not exceed one with regard to § 191.13(a)(1) and may not exceed ten with regard to § 191.13(a)(2).

For example, if radionuclides A, B, and C are projected to be released in amounts Qa, Qb, and Qc, and if the applicable Release Limits are RLa, RLb, and RLc, then the cumulative releases over 10,000 years shall be limited so that the following relationship exists:

$\frac{Q_a}{R{L}_a}+\frac{Q_b}{R{L}_b}+\frac{Q_c}{R{L}_c}\le 1$

[50 FR 38084, Sept. 19, 1985, as amended at 58 FR 66415, Dec. 20, 1993]