N.J. Admin. Code § 7:28-12.3

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 24, December 18, 2024
Section 7:28-12.3 - Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Appropriate period of time" means the length of time determined by the Department, taking into consideration the radioactive half-life, total activity, concentration, and physical condition of the residual radioactivity, geologic stability of the area, and current and projected future demographics.

"Committed dose equivalent" means the total dose equivalent averaged throughout any body tissue in the 50 years after intake of a radionuclide into the body.

"Committed effective dose equivalent" means the sum of the products of the committed dose equivalents to individual tissues resulting from an intake of a radionuclide multiplied by the appropriate weighting factor (W[T]) indicated below:

Organ or TissueW[T]
Gonads0.25
Breast0.15
Red bone marrow0.12
Lung0.12
Thyroid0.03
Bone Surfaces0.03
Remainder0.30*
Whole Body (external)1.00

*0.30 results from 0.06 for each of five "remainder" organs (excluding the skin and the lens of the eye) that receive the highest doses.

"Contaminated site" means a site as defined pursuant to the Technical Requirements for Site Remediation rules at N.J.A.C. 7:26E-1.8.

"Deep-dose equivalent" means, applied to external whole-body exposure, the dose equivalent at a tissue depth of one centimeter.

"Derived concentration guideline level" means the radionuclide-specific activity concentration corresponding to the release criterion.

"Design features" means those features of a remediation that do not rely on additional expenditures after installation to achieve their intended purpose.

"Dose equivalent" means the product of the absorbed dose (D), the quality factor (Q), and other modifying factors (N). For purposes of this definition, N=1.

"Engineering controls" means any physical mechanism to contain or stabilize contamination or ensure the effectiveness of a remedial action. Engineering controls under this subchapter may include, without limitation, caps, covers, dikes, trenches, leachate collection systems, radon remediation systems, signs, fences, physical access controls, ground water monitoring systems and ground water containment systems including, without limitation, slurry walls and ground water pumping systems.

"Final status survey" is a survey or analysis, performed after remediation, which provides data that demonstrates that all radiological parameters satisfy the remediation standards.

"Institutional controls" means a mechanism used to limit human activities at or near a contaminated site, or to ensure the effectiveness of the remedial action over time, when contaminants remain at a site in levels or concentrations above the applicable remediation standard that would allow unrestricted use of that property. Institutional controls under this subchapter may include, without limitation, structure, land and natural resource use restrictions, well restriction areas, classification exception areas, deed notices, and declarations of environmental restrictions.

"Intake dose" means the annual radiation dose to a person from all potential intake pathways (exclusive of radon inhalation), including the ingestion of water, direct ingestion of soil, intake of foods, and the inhalation of resuspended particulate matter (in committed effective dose equivalent).

"Limited restricted-use remedial action" means any remedial action that requires the continued use of institutional controls but does not require the use of an engineering control.

"Natural background radionuclide concentration" means the average value of a particular radionuclide concentration in soils measured in areas in the vicinity of the site, in an area that has not been influenced by localized human activities, including the site's prior or current operations.

"Quality factor" means the factor by which absorbed doses are multiplied to obtain a quantity that expresses the effectiveness of the absorbed dose on a common scale for all types of ionizing radiation.

"Radioactive contamination or radioactive contaminant" means the collective amount of radiation emitted from one or more radionuclides in the soil, and on/in building materials and/or equipment at concentrations above natural background levels.

"Radioactive materials" means any material, solid, liquid, or gas, that emits radiation spontaneously.

"Radionuclide" means a type of atom that spontaneously undergoes radioactive decay.

"Regional natural background variation" means the best Department estimate, based on available data, of a region's naturally experienced variation in radiation dose from mean levels that are commonly and consistently experienced by persons in the State.

"Remedial action" means those actions taken at a site, or offsite if a radioactive contaminant has migrated or is migrating there from a radioactively contaminated site as may be required by the Department, including, without limitation, removal, treatment, containment, transportation, securing, or other engineering or treatment measures, whether to an unrestricted use or otherwise, designed to ensure that any discharged radioactive contaminant at the site, or that has migrated or is migrating from the site, is remediated in compliance with the applicable remediation standards in this subchapter.

"Remediation" or "remediate" means all necessary actions to investigate and cleanup or respond to any known, suspected, or threatened discharge of radioactive contaminants, including, as necessary, the preliminary assessment, site investigation, remedial investigation, and remedial action.

"Remediation standards" means the combination of numeric standards that establish a level or concentration, and narrative standards, to which radioactive contaminants must be treated, removed or otherwise cleaned for soil, ground water or surface water, as established by the Department pursuant to N.J.S.A. 58:10B-12 and this chapter, in order to meet the health risk or environmental standards.

"Residual radioactivity" means radioactivity in structures, materials, soils, groundwater, and other media at a site resulting from activities under the licensee's or person responsible for the remediation's control. This includes radioactivity from all licensed and unlicensed sources used by the licensee or person responsible for the remediation, but excludes background radiation. It also includes radioactive materials remaining at the site as a result of routine or accidental releases of radioactive material at the site and previous burials at the site, even if those burials were made in accordance with the provisions of U.S. NRC regulations at 10 CFR Part 20 or the provisions of N.J.A.C. 7:28-12.15.

"Restricted use remedial action" means any remedial action that requires the continued use of engineering and institutional controls in order to meet the established health risk or environmental standards.

"Technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials" means any naturally occurring radioactive materials whose radionuclide concentrations or potential for human exposure have been increased by any human activities.

"Total effective dose equivalent" means the sum of the deep-dose equivalent (for external exposures) and the committed effective dose equivalent (for internal exposures).

"Uncontaminated surface soil" means soil whose average natural background radionuclide total concentrations are less than the remediation standards for radionuclides, and cannot exceed the background established for the site by more than two standard deviations.

"Unrestricted use remedial action" means any remedial action that does not require the continued use of engineering or institutional controls in order to meet the established standards.

"Vertical extent" means the average depth, measured in feet, of the post-remediation radioactive contamination over an affected area.

N.J. Admin. Code § 7:28-12.3

Amended by R.2008 d.281, effective 9/15/2008 (operative September 30, 2009).
See: 40 N.J.R. 2309(a), 40 N.J.R. 5196(b), 41 N.J.R. 3415(a).
Rewrote definition "Appropriate period of time"; added definitions "Contaminated site" and "Residual radioactivity"; in definition "Engineering controls", inserted "physical" preceding "mechanism", substituted a comma for "and" following "fences", and inserted ", ground water monitoring systems and ground water containment systems including, without limitation, slurry walls and ground water pumping systems"; in definition "Radioactive contamination or radioactive contaminant", inserted ", and on/in building materials and/or equipment"; in definition "Remediation standards", substituted "established" for "provided" and inserted "and this chapter"; deleted definition "Residual radionuclides"; and in definition "Uncontaminated surface soil", substituted "remediation standards for" for "limits for residual".