32.1-227 - Definitions.
§ 32.1-227. Definitions.
As used in this article unless the context requires a different meaning:
1. "By-product material" means:
a. Any radioactive material, except special nuclear material, yielded in ormade radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process ofproducing or utilizing special nuclear material;
b. The tailings or wastes produced by the extraction or concentration ofuranium or thorium from any ore processed primarily of its source materialcontent;
c. Any discrete source of radium-226 that is produced, extracted, orconverted after extraction for use for a commercial, medical, or researchactivity;
d. Any material that has been made radioactive by use of a particleaccelerator and is produced, extracted, or converted after extraction for usefor a commercial, medical, or research activity; and
e. Any discrete source of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM),other than source material that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), inconsultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the head ofany other appropriate federal agency, determines would pose a threat similarto the threat posed by a discrete source of radium-226 to the public healthand safety or the common defense and security, that is extracted, orconverted after extraction, for use for a commercial, medical, or researchactivity.
2. "General license" means a license effective under regulationspromulgated by the Board without the filing of an application with theDepartment or the issuance of licensing documents to particular persons totransfer, acquire, own, possess, or use quantities of, or devices orequipment utilizing, radioactive material.
3. "Ionizing radiation" means gamma rays and X-rays, alpha and betaparticles, high-speed electrons, neutrons, protons, and other nuclearparticles.
4. "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, firm,association, trust, estate, public or private institution, group, departmentof the Commonwealth other than the Department of Health, politicalsubdivision of the Commonwealth, any other state or political subdivision ordepartment thereof, and any legal successor, representative, agent, ordepartment of the foregoing, but not including federal government agencies.
5. "Radiation emergency" means any situation, excluding events resultingfrom nuclear warfare, which involves the possibility of accidental release ofionizing radiation that may pose a threat to the safety and health of anycitizen of this Commonwealth.
6. "Radioactive material" means any material that emits ionizing radiationspontaneously.
7. "Source material" means uranium or thorium, or any combination thereof,in any physical or chemical form; or ores that contain by weightone-twentieth of one percent (0.05 percent) or more of uranium, thorium, orany combination thereof. Source material does not include special nuclearmaterial.
8. "Special nuclear material" means (i) plutonium, uranium 233, uraniumenriched in the isotope 233 or in the isotope 235, and any other materialwhich the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission or any successorthereto has determined to be such but does not include source material; or(ii) any material artificially enriched by any of the foregoing but notincluding source material.
9. "Specific license" means a license, issued to a named person uponapplication filed under the regulations promulgated pursuant to this article,to use, manufacture, produce, transfer, receive, acquire, or possessquantities of, or devices or equipment utilizing, radioactive material.
(Code 1950, § 32-414.3; 1964, c. 158; 1975, c. 563; 1979, c. 711; 2008, cc.41, 466.)