SUMMARY:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is today finalizing its proposal to provide increased flexibility to facilities that manage low-level mixed waste (LLMW) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring and/or accelerator-produced radioactive material (NARM) containing hazardous waste. The final rule reduces dual regulation of LLMW, which is subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and to the Atomic Energy Act (AEA). This final rule conditionally exempts from RCRA hazardous waste management low-level mixed wastes during storage and treatment. The storage and treatment exemption in today’s rule requires the use of tanks or containers to store or treat the waste and applies only to lowlevel mixed waste that meets the specified conditions and is generated under a single Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or NRC Agreement State license.

Today’s rule also exempts LLMW and hazardous NARM waste from RCRA manifest, transportation, and disposal requirements when specified conditions are met. Under this conditional exemption, the waste remains subject to manifest, transport, and disposal requirements under the NRC (or NRC Agreement State) regulations for lowlevel radioactive waste (LLW) or eligible NARM.