---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 2021j"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "2021j"
heading: "Radioactive waste below regulatory concern"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/2021j"
units:
  - "Chapter 23 — Development and Control of Atomic Energy"
  - "Division A — Atomic Energy"
  - "Subchapter I — General Provisions"
---

# §2021j. Radioactive waste below regulatory concern

- (a) Not later than 6 months after January 15, 1986, the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) shall establish standards and procedures, pursuant to existing authority, and develop the technical capability for considering and acting upon petitions to exempt specific radioactive waste streams from regulation by the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) due to the presence of radionuclides in such waste streams in sufficiently low concentrations or quantities as to be below regulatory concern.
- (b) The standards and procedures established by the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) pursuant to [subsection (a)](#a) shall set forth all information required to be submitted to the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) by licensees in support of such petitions, including, but not limited to—
  - (1) a detailed description of the waste materials, including their origin, chemical composition, physical [state](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14), volume, and mass; and
  - (2) the concentration or contamination levels, half-lives, and identities of the radionuclides present.

  Such standards and procedures shall provide that, upon receipt of a petition to exempt a specific radioactive waste stream from regulation by the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f), the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) shall determine in an expeditious manner whether the concentration or quantity of radionuclides present in such waste stream requires regulation by the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) in order to protect the public health and safety. Where the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) determines that regulation of a radioactive waste stream is not necessary to protect the public health and safety, the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) shall take such steps as may be necessary, in an expeditious manner, to exempt the [disposal](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=7) of such radioactive waste from regulation by the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f).


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–573, § 10, as added Pub. L. 99–240, title I, § 102, Jan. 15, 1986, 99 Stat. 1859.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was enacted as part of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act, and not as part of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which comprises this chapter.