Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 52, December 26, 2024
(a)
Each person who only acquires, possesses, uses, or transfers source material in
any chemical mixture, compound, solution, or alloy in which the source
material, by weight, is less than 0.05 percent of the mixture, compound,
solution, or alloy shall be exempt from these regulations.
(b) Each person who only acquires, possesses,
uses, or transfers unrefined and unprocessed ore containing source material and
does not refine or process the ore shall be exempt from these
regulations.
(c) Each person who
only acquires, possesses, uses, or transfers any of the following shall be
exempt from the requirements for a license in part 3 of these regulations and
the requirements of parts 4 and 10 of these regulations:
(1) Any quantities of thorium contained in
any of the following:
(A) Incandescent gas
mantles;
(D) electric lamps for illuminating purposes,
if each lamp does not contain more than 50 milligrams of thorium;
(E) germicidal lamps, sunlamps, and lamps for
outdoor or industrial lighting, if each lamp does not contain more than two
grams of thorium;
(F) rare earth
metals and compounds, mixtures, and products containing not more than 0.25
percent thorium or uranium, or both, by weight; or
(G) personnel neutron dosimeters, if each
dosimeter does not contain more than 50 milligrams of thorium;
(2) source material contained in
any of the following:
(A) Glazed ceramic
tableware, if the glaze contains not more than 20 percent source material, by
weight;
(B) glassware containing
not more than two percent of source material by weight or, for glassware
manufactured before August 27, 2013, 10 percent of source material by weight.
This exemption shall not include commercially manufactured glass brick, pane
glass, ceramic tile or other glass, or ceramic used in construction;
(C) glass enamel or glass enamel frit that
contains not more than 10 percent of source material, by weight, and that was
imported or ordered for importation into the United States, or initially
distributed by manufacturers in the United States, before July 25, 1983;
or
(D) piezoelectric ceramic
containing not more than two percent of source material by weight;
(3) photographic film, negatives,
and prints containing uranium or thorium;
(4) any finished product or part of a product
fabricated of, or containing, tungsten or magnesium-thorium alloys if the
thorium content of the alloy does not exceed four percent, by weight. The
exemption contained in this paragraph shall not be deemed to authorize the
chemical, physical, or metallurgical treatment or processing of any product or
part of a product;
(5) uranium used
as shielding and constituting part of any shipping container. The uranium
shielding shall be conspicuously and legibly impressed with the words
"CAUTION-RADIOACTIVE SHIELDING-URANI-UM" and shall be enclosed in steel
containing no more than 0.25 percent carbon, or another equally fire-resistant
metal, with a minimum wall thickness of one-eighth inch (3.2 mm);
(6) thorium or uranium contained in finished
optical lenses, if each lens does not contain more than 30 percent of thorium
or uranium by weight or, if manufactured after August 27, 2013, 10 percent of
thorium or uranium by weight. The exemption in this paragraph shall not be
deemed to authorize either of the following:
(A) The shaping, grinding, or polishing of
the lens or any manufacturing processes other than the assembly of the lens
into optical systems and devices without any alteration of the lens;
or
(B) the receipt, possession,
use, or transfer of thorium or uranium contained in contact lenses, or in
eyeglasses, or in eyepieces in binoculars or other optical
instruments;
(7) uranium
contained in detector heads for use in fire detection units, if each detector
head contains not more than 0.005 microcurie of uranium; or
(8) thorium contained in any finished
aircraft engine part containing nickel-thoria alloy, if both of the following
conditions are met:
(A) The thorium is
dispersed in the nickel-thoria alloy in the form of finely divided thoria
(thorium dioxide); and
(B) the
thorium content in the nickel-thoria alloy does not exceed four percent by
weight.
(d)
(1) Each person who acquires, possesses,
uses, or transfers uranium contained in counterweights installed in aircraft,
rockets, projectiles or missiles or stored or handled in connection with
installation or removal of these counterweights, except counterweights
manufactured before December 31, 1969 under a specific license issued by the
atomic energy commission and impressed with the legend required by that
license, shall be exempt from the requirements for a license in part 3 of these
regulations and the requirements of parts 4 and 10 of these regulations if both
of the following conditions are met:
(A) Each
counterweight has been impressed in a manner that is clearly legible through
any plating or covering with the following words: "DEPLETED URANIUM."
(B) Each counterweight is durably and legibly
labeled or marked with the identification of the manufacturer and the following
words: "UNAUTHORIZED ALTERATIONS PROHIBITED."
(2) The exemption specified in this
subsection shall not be deemed to authorize the chemical, physical, or
metallurgical treatment or processing of any counterweights, other than repair
or restoration of any plating or other covering.
(e)
(1) No
person shall initially transfer for sale or distribution a product containing
source material to any persons exempt under subsections (c) and (d) or
equivalent regulations of an agreement state, unless authorized by a license
issued by the nuclear regulatory commission (NRC) to initially transfer the
products for sale or distribution.
(2) Each person authorized by an agreement
state to manufacture, process, or produce materials or products containing
source material and each person who imports finished products or parts for sale
or distribution shall be authorized by a license issued by the NRC for
distribution only.