[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2224 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2224

To require a licensee to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and 
the State and county in which a facility is located, whenever there is 
            an unplanned release of radioactive substances.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 24, 2007

 Mr. Obama (for himself and Mr. Durbin) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and 
                              Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require a licensee to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and 
the State and county in which a facility is located, whenever there is 
            an unplanned release of radioactive substances.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Nuclear Release Notice Act of 
2007''.

SEC. 2. NUCLEAR RELEASE NOTICE REQUIREMENT.

    Section 103 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2133) is 
amended by inserting after subsection d. the following:
    ``e. Notice of Unplanned Release of Radioactive Substances.--
            ``(1) Regulations.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the 
                date of enactment of the Nuclear Release Notice Act of 
                2007, the Commission shall promulgate regulations that 
                require civilian nuclear power facilities licensed 
                under this section or section 104b. to provide notice 
                of any release to the environment of quantities of 
                fission products or other radioactive substances.
                    ``(B) Considerations.--In developing the 
                regulations under subparagraph (A), the Commission 
                shall consider requiring licensees of civilian nuclear 
                power facilities to provide notice of the release--
                            ``(i) not later than 24 hours after the 
                        release;
                            ``(ii) to the Commission and the 
                        governments of the State and county in which 
                        the civilian nuclear power facility is located, 
                        if the unplanned release--
                                    ``(I)(aa) exceeds allowable limits 
                                for normal operation established by the 
                                Commission; and
                                    ``(bb) is not subject to more 
                                stringent reporting requirements 
                                established in existing regulations of 
                                the Commission; or
                                    ``(II)(aa) enters into the 
                                environment; and
                                    ``(bb) may cause drinking water 
                                sources to exceed a maximum contaminant 
                                level established by the Environmental 
                                Protection Agency for fission products 
                                or other radioactive substances under 
                                the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 
                                300f et seq.); and
                            ``(iii) to the governments of the State and 
                        county in which the civilian nuclear power 
                        facility is located if the unplanned release 
                        reaches the environment by a path otherwise not 
                        allowed or recognized by the operating license 
                        of the civilian nuclear power facility and 
                        falls within the allowable limits specified in 
                        clause (ii), including--
                                    ``(I) considering any 
                                recommendations issued by the Liquid 
                                Radioactive Release Lessons-Learned 
                                Task Force;
                                    ``(II) the frequency and form of 
                                the notice; and
                                    ``(III) the threshold, volume, and 
                                radiation content that trigger the 
                                notice.
            ``(2) Effect.--Nothing in this subsection provides to any 
        State or county that receives a notice under this subsection 
        regulatory jurisdiction over a licensee of a civilian nuclear 
        power facility.''.
                                 <all>