105 CMR, § 120.803
As used in 105 CMR 120.800 the following definitions apply:
Accident means any event arising from the storage, treatment, recycling or disposal of waste that causes a discharge or dispersal of waste or elements contained in the waste from its intended place of confinement.
Active Maintenance means any significant activity needed during the period of institutional control to maintain a reasonable assurance that the performance objectives in 105 CMR 120.811 and 120.812 are met. The term includes major remedial action such as replacement of disposal unit barrier. Active maintenance does not include custodial activities such as repair of fencing, repair or replacement of monitoring equipment, revegetation, minor additions to soil cover, minor repair of disposal unit barriers, and general disposal site upkeep such as mowing grass.
Adverse Effect means an injurious impact which is significant in relation to the public health, safety, or environmental interest being protected.
Affected Community means a community, other than a site community, which is identified in an environmental impact report prepared pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 30, and can be expected to experience significant impacts as a result of the location, development, operation, closure, postclosure observation and maintenance or institutional control of a facility.
ALARA [acronym for "as low as reasonably achievable"] means making every reasonable effort to maintain exposures to radiation as far below the dose limits in 105 CMR 120.200 as is practical consistent with the purpose for which the licensed activity is undertaken, taking into account the state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to benefits to the public health and safety, and other societal and socioeconomic considerations, and in relation to utilization of nuclear energy and licensed materials in the public interest.
Board means the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Board established in M.G.L. c. 111H, § 2.
Buffer Zone means a parcel of land which is an integral part of a facility that is controlled by the licensee and acts as a surrounding boundary to the facility.
Chelating Agent means certain organic compounds capable of forming (multiple) coordinate bonds with metals through two or more atoms of the organic compound, typically resulting in enhanced thermodynamic stability in solution and greatly altered behavior of the metal ions. Examples include amine polycarboxylic acids (e.g., EDTA, DTPA), and polycarboxylic acids (e.g., citric acid, carbolic acid, and gluconic acid).
Chief Executive Officer means the city manager in any city having a city manager, the mayor in any other city, the town manager in any town having a town manager, the chairman of the Board of Selectmen in any other town.
Closure means the permanent termination of low-level radioactive waste acceptance at a facility, including closure prior to the scheduled closing date, and the implementation of a closure plan.
Closure Plan means the plan, required as a condition of a facility license, prepared pursuant to regulations adopted under M.G.L. c. 111H, § 16, to assure safe facility closure after operation.
Commencement of Construction means initiation of site alteration or physical on-site construction activities. The term does not mean site exploration, necessary roads for site exploration, borings to determine foundation conditions, or other preconstruction monitoring or testing to establish background information related to the suitability of the site or the protection of environmental values.
Community means a city or town of the Commonwealth.
Community Supervisory Committee means a committee, established pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 21, to facilitate the participation of a community, in which a candidate site is located, in the activities established by M.G.L. c. 111H.
Comprehensive Operating Contract means a contract entered into by an Operator and the Board pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 33.
Container means the primary vessel, exclusive of other reusable shielding or other packaging materials, in which waste is placed and received for treatment, storage or disposal; or the vessel into which waste is repackaged for storage or disposal and potential retrieval.
Days means calendar days; provided that in computing time periods such periods shall exclude the day of the event which starts the period running, and further provided that if the last day of a period falls on a Sunday, legal holiday or declared state of emergency day, such period shall be extended to the close of business on the next business day.
Department means Department of Public Health.
Department Environmental Monitoring Program means a monitoring program established by the Department, after consultation with the department of environmental protection and the board of health of each site community, for the purpose of collecting and analyzing environmental data prior to construction and throughout the construction, operation, closure, post-closure observation and maintenance and institutional control of a facility.
Detailed Site Characterization means the on-site investigatory and analytical step of site selection established in M.G.L. c. 111H, § 23 and conducted prior to the selection of any superior site.
Development means all activities undertaken with respect to a low-level radioactive waste facility during the period commencing with the selection of any superior site pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 23 and continuing until the commencement of facility operation pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 39.
Disposal means the isolation of low-level radioactive waste from the biosphere inhabited by human beings and their food chains.
Disposal Unit means a discrete portion of a facility into which waste is emplaced for disposal.
Dose Modeling Program means a computational program for converting measured or expected radioactivity to dose equivalent for the relevant critical organ(s) which employs a formula selected by the facility operator and approved by the Department.
Emplacement of Waste means the placement of waste into a disposal unit for disposal.
Engineered Barrier means a manmade structure or device that is intended to improve a facility's ability to meet the performance objectives set forth in 105 CMR 120.811 through 120.814.
Facility means a parcel of land, together with the structures, equipment and improvements thereon or appurtenant thereto, which, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, is being developed, is used, or has been used for the treatment, storage or disposal of low-level radioactive waste; but does not include any property used for temporary storage of low-level radioactive waste in sealed containers by a broker.
Facility License means a license to operate a facility issued by the Department pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 31.
Generator means a person, including a broker, who produces low-level radioactive waste.
Ground Water means water below the land surface in a saturated zone, including perched ground water.
Inadvertent Intruder means a person who, without regulatory authorization, enters upon the site of a facility after closure to engage in normal activities.
Institutional Control means the continued observation, monitoring and care of a facility following transfer of the facility license from the Operator to the Board.
Institutional Control Account means an account within the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Trust Fund established in M.G.L. c. 111H, § 41 for the purpose of paying institutional control costs pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, §§ 9 and 47.
Intruder Barrier means a sufficient layer of material surrounding waste that inhibits contact with the waste and helps to ensure that radiation exposures to an inadvertent intruder will meet the performance objectives set forth in 105 CMR 120.800, or engineered structures that provide equivalent protection to the inadvertent intruder.
Low-level Radioactive Waste means radioactive material that:
(1) is neither high-level waste, nor spent nuclear fuel, nor by-product material as defined in Section 11(e)(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2014(e); and
(2) is classified by the Federal Government as low-level radioactive waste, but not including waste which remains a Federal responsibility, as designated in Section 3(b) of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2021c(b), as in effect as of December 8, 1987.
Low-level Radioactive Waste Trust Fund means a trust fund established pursuant to M.G.L. c. 10, § 35H which shall consist of surcharges collected from users of the low-level radioactive waste facility in an amount determined by the board on an annual basis, which shall be used to meet the obligations set forth in M.G.L. c. 111H, §§ 9 and 47.
Manifest means a detailed record of the characteristics and quantities of packaged waste as presented for transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal which usually accompanies waste transfers for these purposes.
Mass Wasting means the movement of rock or soil material under the influence of gravity either as the movement of the product of weathering down a slope or as mass movement of rock or soil along joint planes or bedding planes. Mass wasting includes but is not limited to creep, mud flows, earth flow, soil flow, rock avalanche, landslide, landslip and slumping.
Mixed Waste means low-level radioactive waste containing material that either:
(1) is listed in 310 CMR 30.131 through 30.136; or
(2) causes the waste to exhibit any of the characteristics identified in 310 CMR 30.120.
Monitoring means observing and making measurements to provide data on a facility, its site, its surrounding environment, and its health safety and environmental impacts.
NARM means any naturally occurring or accelerator-produced radioactive material as defined in 105 CMR 120.001. It does not include byproduct, source, or special nuclear material.
Neighboring Community means a community, other than a site community, which, according to the most recent federal census, has at least 20% of its population residing within three miles of any superior site.
Operation means the control, supervision or implementation of the actual physical activities involved in the acceptance, storage, treatment, disposal or monitoring of low-level radioactive waste at a facility and the maintenance of the facility and any other responsibilities of the operation pertaining to the facility.
Operator means a person designated in accordance with the procedures established in M.G.L. c. 111H, §§ 22 and 27 to develop and operate a low-level radioactive waste facility.
Operator Environmental Monitoring Program means a monitoring program conducted by the Operator for the purpose of collecting and analyzing environmental data during the preoperational, operational, closure, post-closure observation and maintenance, and institutional control stages of a facility.
Person means any agency or political subdivision of the federal government or the commonwealth or of any state, any public or private corporation or authority, individual, firm, joint stock company, partnership, association, trust, estate, institution or other entity, and any officer, employee or agent of such person, and any group of such persons.
Post-closure Observation and Maintenance means the active monitoring and maintenance of a facility which has been closed in preparation for transfer of the facility's license from the Operator to the Board.
Public Interest means the common welfare, convenience, benefit and necessity of the people of the Commonwealth, including public health, safety and the environment.
Public Meeting means a public hearing, satisfying the requirements of M.G.L. c. 30A, § 2, in which an agency presents information, responds to inquiries and hears testimony of interested persons.
Radioactivity means the transformation of unstable atomic nuclei with the emission of radiation.
Radionuclide means an isotope that eventually undergoes spontaneous disintegration, with the emission of radiation.
Radioactive Material means any solid, liquid, or gas which emits radiation spontaneously.
Retrieval means the recovery of waste in an intact container.
Retrievability means the ability to recover waste in an intact container without substantial destruction of the engineered barriers surrounding the waste containers.
Shallow Land Burial means a land disposal method that relies on the site's natural characteristics as the primary barrier for isolation of the waste.
Site means a parcel of land which, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111, §§ 3, 5M, 5N, 5O, and 5P is being considered, developed or used or has been used as a location for a facility.
Site Community means the community in which is located all or any part of any superior site.
Source Minimization means minimizing the volume of radioactivity of low-level radioactive waste prior to its generation by such methods as:
(1) avoiding unnecessary contamination of items during the use of radioactive materials;
(2) carefully segregating radioactive waste from non-radioactive trash; or
(3) substituting non-radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes with shorter half-lives where practicable.
Stability means structural stability.
Storage means the holding of low-level radioactive waste for treatment or disposal.
Subsidence means the process by which the earth's surface sinks, either rapidly or slowly, with little or no horizontal motion.
Superior Site means any site selected by the Board, after detailed site characterization, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 23.
Surveillance means observation of a facility for purposes of visual detection of the need for maintenance or custodial care, evidence of intrusion, or compliance with other license or regulatory requirements.
Temporary Closure means the nonpermanent termination of low-level waste acceptance at a facility prior to its scheduled closing date.
Treatment means any method, technique, or process including source minimization, volume minimization, and storage for decay, designed to change the physical, radioactive, chemical, or biological characteristics or composition of low-level radioactive waste in order to render such waste safer for management, amenable for recovery, convertible to another usable material or reduced in volume.
Violation means any act or failure to act which constitutes or results in one or more of the following:
(1) engaging in any business or other activity without a license or approval whenever engaging in such business or activity requires such license or approval.
(2) engaging in any activity prohibited by, or not in compliance with, any statute, by-law, ordinance or regulation.
(3) not fully doing, or not doing in timely fashion, anything required by any statute, by-law, ordinance or regulation.
Volume Minimization means treatment of low-level radioactive waste after its generation in order to minimize the physical dimensions of the waste and the. space required for disposal.
Waste means low-level radioactive waste.
Waste Form means those physical and chemical characteristics of waste of primary importance in influencing its stability in a disposal environment.
Waste Management Area means that portion of a facility where low-level radioactive waste has been, is being or will be treated, stored or disposed of.
105 CMR, § 120.803