Section 601.20  Definitions

As used in this Part, the following definitions apply:

"Accepted engineering principles and practices" means those engineering principles and practices that are used by engineers when fulfilling their requirements and duties consistent with the specific requirements of this Part and as certified by a Professional Engineer licensed under the Professional Engineering Practice Act [225 ILCS 325].

"Active maintenance" means activity needed during the institutional control period to provide reasonable assurance that the performance objectives in Section 601.30 are met.  Active maintenance includes ongoing activities such as the pumping and treatment of water from a disposal unit and one-time measures such as replacement of a disposal unit cover.  Active maintenance does not include minor custodial care such as repair of fences, repair or replacement of monitoring equipment, revegetation, minor additions to soil cover, minor repair of disposal unit covers, and general disposal site upkeep such as mowing grass.

"As low as is reasonably achievable" or "ALARA" means making every reasonable effort to maintain exposures to radiation as far below the dose limits in 32 Ill. Adm. Code: Chapter II, Subchapters b and d as is practical consistent with the purpose for which the licensed or registered activity is undertaken, taking into account the state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to the 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 or registered sources of radiation in the public interest.

"Buffer zone" means a portion of the disposal site that is controlled by the licensee and that lies under the disposal units and between the disposal units and the boundary of the site.

"Chelating agent" means amine polycarboxylic acids, hydroxycarboxylic acids, glucinic acid and polycarboxylic acids. 

"Commence construction" means any clearing of land, excavation or other substantial action that would adversely affect the environment of a disposal facility.  The term does not mean disposal site exploration, necessary roads for disposal site exploration, borings to determine foundation conditions, or other preconstruction monitoring or testing to establish background information related to the suitability of the disposal site or the protection of the environment.

"Disposal" means the isolation of waste from the biosphere in a permanent facility designed for that purpose [420 ILCS 20/3(f)].

"Disposal facility" or "facility" means a parcel of land, together with buildings, structures, equipment and improvements on or appurtenant to the land, that is used or is being developed for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste.

"Disposal site" means that portion of a disposal facility that is used for disposal of waste.  It consists of disposal units and a buffer zone.

"Disposal unit" means a discrete portion of the disposal site into which waste is placed for disposal. 

"Engineered barrier" means a man-made structure or device that is intended to improve the disposal facility's ability to meet the performance objectives in this Part.

"Inadvertent intruder" means a person who might occupy the disposal site after the institutional control period and engage in normal activities, such as agriculture, dwelling construction, or other pursuits in which an individual might be unknowingly exposed to radiation from the waste.

"Institutional control period" means the period of time after the termination of the license during which the State implements an institutional control program based upon the institutional control plan to protect public health and safety and the environment.

"Intruder barrier" means a sufficient depth of cover over the waste that inhibits contact with waste and helps to ensure that radiation exposures to an inadvertent intruder will meet the performance objectives set forth in this Part, or engineered structures that provide equivalent protection to the inadvertent intruder.

"Low-level radioactive waste" or "waste" means radioactive waste not classified as high-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel or byproduct material as defined in Section 11e(2) of the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 USC 2014) [420 ILCS 20/3(k)].

"Monitoring" means observing and making measurements to provide data to evaluate the performance and characteristics of the disposal facility.

"Post-closure care" means the continued monitoring of the regional disposal facility after closure for the purposes of detecting a need for maintenance, ensuring environmental safety, and determining compliance with applicable licensure and regulatory requirements, and includes undertaking any remedial actions necessary to protect public health and the environment from radioactive releases from the facility [420 ILCS 20/3(n)].

"Release" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping or disposing into the environment of low-level radioactive waste [420 ILCS 20/3(p)].

"Remedial action" means those actions taken in the event of a release or threatened release of low-level radioactive waste into the environment, to prevent or minimize the release of the waste so that it does not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health or welfare or the environment.  The term includes, but is not limited to, actions at the location of the release such as storage, confinement, perimeter protection using dikes, trenches or ditches, clay cover, neutralization, cleanup of released low-level radioactive wastes, recycling or reuse, dredging or excavations, repair or replacement of leaking containers, collection of leachate and runoff, provision of alternative water supplies and any monitoring reasonably required to assure that these actions protect human health and the environment. [420 ILCS 20/3(q)]

"Shallow land burial" means a land disposal facility in which radioactive waste is disposed of in or within the upper 30 meters of the earth's surface. However, this definition shall not include an enclosed, engineered, structurally re-enforced and solidified bunker that extends below the earth's surface.  [420 ILCS 20/3(r)]

"Site closure and stabilization" means those actions that are taken upon completion of operations that prepare the disposal site for institutional control and that assure that the disposal site will remain stable and will not need ongoing active maintenance.