US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 7, 2003]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 7, 2003 and December 19, 2003]
[CITE: 42USC10101]

 
                 TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
 
                    CHAPTER 108--NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY
 
Sec. 10101. Definitions

    For purposes of this chapter:
        (1) The term ``Administrator'' means the Administrator of the 
    Environmental Protection Agency.
        (2) The term ``affected Indian tribe'' means any Indian tribe--
            (A) within whose reservation boundaries a monitored 
        retrievable storage facility, test and evaluation facility, or a 
        repository for high-level radioactive waste or spent fuel is 
        proposed to be located;
            (B) whose federally defined possessory or usage rights to 
        other lands outside of the reservation's boundaries arising out 
        of congressionally ratified treaties may be substantially and 
        adversely affected by the locating of such a facility: Provided, 
        That the Secretary of the Interior finds, upon the petition of 
        the appropriate governmental officials of the tribe, that such 
        effects are both substantial and adverse to the tribe; \1\
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    \1\ So in original. The semicolon probably should be a period.

        (3) The term ``atomic energy defense activity'' means any 
    activity of the Secretary performed in whole or in part in carrying 
    out any of the following functions:
            (A) naval reactors development;
            (B) weapons activities including defense inertial 
        confinement fusion;
            (C) verification and control technology;
            (D) defense nuclear materials production;
            (E) defense nuclear waste and materials by-products 
        management;
            (F) defense nuclear materials security and safeguards and 
        security investigations; and
            (G) defense research and development.

        (4) The term ``candidate site'' means an area, within a geologic 
    and hydrologic system, that is recommended by the Secretary under 
    section 10132 of this title for site characterization, approved by 
    the President under section 10132 of this title for site 
    characterization, or undergoing site characterization under section 
    10133 of this title.
        (5) The term ``civilian nuclear activity'' means any atomic 
    energy activity other than an atomic energy defense activity.
        (6) The term ``civilian nuclear power reactor'' means a civilian 
    nuclear powerplant required to be licensed under section 2133 or 
    2134(b) of this title.
        (7) The term ``Commission'' means the Nuclear Regulatory 
    Commission.
        (8) The term ``Department'' means the Department of Energy.
        (9) The term ``disposal'' means the emplacement in a repository 
    of high-level radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, or other highly 
    radioactive material with no foreseeable intent of recovery, whether 
    or not such emplacement permits the recovery of such waste.
        (10) The terms ``disposal package'' and ``package'' mean the 
    primary container that holds, and is in contact with, solidified 
    high-level radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, or other 
    radioactive materials, and any overpacks that are emplaced at a 
    repository.
        (11) The term ``engineered barriers'' means manmade components 
    of a disposal system designed to prevent the release of 
    radionuclides into the geologic medium involved. Such term includes 
    the high-level radioactive waste form, high-level radioactive waste 
    canisters, and other materials placed over and around such 
    canisters.
        (12) The term ``high-level radioactive waste'' means--
            (A) the highly radioactive material resulting from the 
        reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste 
        produced directly in reprocessing and any solid material derived 
        from such liquid waste that contains fission products in 
        sufficient concentrations; and
            (B) other highly radioactive material that the Commission, 
        consistent with existing law, determines by rule requires 
        permanent isolation.

        (13) The term ``Federal agency'' means any Executive agency, as 
    defined in section 105 of title 5.
        (14) The term ``Governor'' means the chief executive officer of 
    a State.
        (15) The term ``Indian tribe'' means any Indian tribe, band, 
    nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized 
    as eligible for the services provided to Indians by the Secretary of 
    the Interior because of their status as Indians, including any 
    Alaska Native village, as defined in section 3(c) of the Alaska 
    Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1602(c)).
        (16) The term ``low-level radioactive waste'' means radioactive 
    material that--
            (A) is not high-level radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, 
        transuranic waste, or by-product material as defined in section 
        2014(e)(2) of this title; and
            (B) the Commission, consistent with existing law, classifies 
        as low-level radioactive waste.

        (17) The term ``Office'' means the Office of Civilian 
    Radioactive Waste Management established in section 10224 \2\ of 
    this title.
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    \2\ See References in Text note below.
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        (18) The term ``repository'' means any system licensed by the 
    Commission that is intended to be used for, or may be used for, the 
    permanent deep geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste and 
    spent nuclear fuel, whether or not such system is designed to permit 
    the recovery, for a limited period during initial operation, of any 
    materials placed in such system. Such term includes both surface and 
    subsurface areas at which high-level radioactive waste and spent 
    nuclear fuel handling activities are conducted.
        (19) The term ``reservation'' means--
            (A) any Indian reservation or dependent Indian community 
        referred to in clause (a) or (b) of section 1151 of title 18; or
            (B) any land selected by an Alaska Native village or 
        regional corporation under the provisions of the Alaska Native 
        Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.).

        (20) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Energy.
        (21) The term ``site characterization'' means--
            (A) siting research activities with respect to a test and 
        evaluation facility at a candidate site; and
            (B) activities, whether in the laboratory or in the field, 
        undertaken to establish the geologic condition and the ranges of 
        the parameters of a candidate site relevant to the location of a 
        repository, including borings, surface excavations, excavations 
        of exploratory shafts, limited subsurface lateral excavations 
        and borings, and in situ testing needed to evaluate the 
        suitability of a candidate site for the location of a 
        repository, but not including preliminary borings and 
        geophysical testing needed to assess whether site 
        characterization should be undertaken.

        (22) The term ``siting research'' means activities, including 
    borings, surface excavations, shaft excavations, subsurface lateral 
    excavations and borings, and in situ testing, to determine the 
    suitability of a site for a test and evaluation facility.
        (23) The term ``spent nuclear fuel'' means fuel that has been 
    withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation, the 
    constituent elements of which have not been separated by 
    reprocessing.
        (24) The term ``State'' means each of the several States, the 
    District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin 
    Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the 
    Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and any other territory or 
    possession of the United States.
        (25) The term ``storage'' means retention of high-level 
    radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, or transuranic waste with the 
    intent to recover such waste or fuel for subsequent use, processing, 
    or disposal.
        (26) The term ``Storage Fund'' means the Interim Storage Fund 
    established in section 10156(c) \3\ of this title.
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    \3\ See References in Text note below.
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        (27) The term ``test and evaluation facility'' means an at-
    depth, prototypic, underground cavity with subsurface lateral 
    excavations extending from a central shaft that is used for research 
    and development purposes, including the development of data and 
    experience for the safe handling and disposal of solidified high-
    level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, or spent nuclear fuel.
        (28) The term ``unit of general local government'' means any 
    borough, city, county, parish, town, township, village, or other 
    general purpose political subdivision of a State.
        (29) The term ``Waste Fund'' means the Nuclear Waste Fund 
    established in section 10222(c) of this title.
        (30) The term ``Yucca Mountain site'' means the candidate site 
    in the State of Nevada recommended by the Secretary to the President 
    under section 10132(b)(1)(B) of this title on May 27, 1986.
        (31) The term ``affected unit of local government'' means the 
    unit of local government with jurisdiction over the site of a 
    repository or a monitored retrievable storage facility. Such term 
    may, at the discretion of the Secretary, include units of local 
    government that are contiguous with such unit.
        (32) The term ``Negotiator'' means the Nuclear Waste Negotiator.
        (33) As used in subchapter IV of this chapter, the term 
    ``Office'' means the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator 
    established under subchapter IV of this chapter.
        (34) The term ``monitored retrievable storage facility'' means 
    the storage facility described in section 10161(b)(1) of this title.

(Pub. L. 97-425, Sec. 2, Jan. 7, 1983, 96 Stat. 2202; Pub. L. 100-202, 
Sec. 101(d) [title III, Sec. 300], Dec. 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 1329-104, 
1329-121; Pub. L. 100-203, title V, Sec. 5002, Dec. 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 
1330-227.)

                       References in Text

    Section 10224 of this title, referred to in par. (17), was in the 
original a reference to section 305 of Pub. L. 97-425, which is 
classified to section 10225 of this title, and was translated as section 
10224 of this title as the probable intent of Congress, in view of the 
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management being established by 
section 10224 of this title.
    The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, referred to in par. 
(19)(B), is Pub. L. 92-203, Dec. 18, 1971, 85 Stat. 688, as amended, 
which is classified generally to chapter 33 (Sec. 1601 et seq.) of Title 
43, Public Lands. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, 
see Short Title note set out under section 1601 of Title 43 and Tables.
    Section 10156(c) of this title, referred to in par. (26), was in the 
original a reference to section 137(c) of Pub. L. 97-425, which is 
classified to section 10157(c) of this title, and has been translated as 
section 10156(c) of this title as the probable intent of Congress, in 
view of the Interim Storage Fund being established by section 10156(c) 
of this title.


                               Amendments

    1987--Pars. (30) to (34). Pub. L. 100-202 and Pub. L. 100-203 
amended section identically adding pars. (30) to (34).


                      Short Title of 1987 Amendment

    Section 101(d) [title III] of Pub. L. 100-202 and section 5001 of 
title V of Pub. L. 100-203 provided that: ``This subtitle [subtitle A 
(Secs. 5001-5065) of title V, enacting sections 10162, 10163, 10164, 
10165, 10166, 10167, 10168, 10169, 10172, 10172a, 10173, 10173a, 10173b, 
10173c, 10174, 10174a, 10175, 10204, 10241, 10242, 10243, 10244, 10245, 
10246, 10247, 10248, 10249, 10250, 10251, 10261, 10262, 10263, 10264, 
10265, 10266, 10267, 10268, 10269, and 10270 of this title, amending 
this section and sections 10132, 10133, 10134, 10136, 10137, and 10138 
of this title and enacting provisions set out as a note under section 
5841 of this title] may be cited as the `Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments 
Act of 1987'.''


                               Short Title

    Section 1 of Pub. L. 97-425 provided that: ``This Act [enacting this 
chapter] may be cited as the `Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982'.''

          Termination of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

    For termination of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, see note 
set out preceding section 1681 of Title 48, Territories and Insular 
Possessions.


                  Nuclear Waste Management Plan; Report

    Pub. L. 102-486, title VIII, Sec. 803, Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 
2923, provided that:
    ``(a) Preparation and Submission of Report.--The Secretary of 
Energy, in consultation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the 
Environmental Protection Agency, shall prepare and submit to the 
Congress a report on whether current programs and plans for management 
of nuclear waste as mandated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 
U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) are adequate for management of any additional 
volumes or categories of nuclear waste that might be generated by any 
new nuclear power plants that might be constructed and licensed after 
the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 24, 1992]. The Secretary 
shall prepare the report for submission to the President and the 
Congress within 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act. The 
report shall examine any new relevant issues related to management of 
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste that might be raised 
by the addition of new nuclear-generated electric capacity, including 
anticipated increased volumes of spent nuclear fuel or high-level 
radioactive waste, any need for additional interim storage capacity 
prior to final disposal, transportation of additional volumes of waste, 
and any need for additional repositories for deep geologic disposal.
    ``(b) Opportunity for Public Comment.--In preparation of the report 
required under subsection (a), the Secretary of Energy shall offer 
members of the public an opportunity to provide information and comment 
and shall solicit the views of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the 
Environmental Protection Agency, and other interested parties.
    ``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.''

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in section 2014 of this title; title 18 
sections 33, 1992; title 49 section 5105.