§16-27B-3. 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 or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process of producing or utilizing special nuclear material;

(B) Any discrete source of radium-226 that is produced, extracted, or converted after extraction for use for a commercial, medical, or research activity;

(C) Any material that has been made radioactive by use of a particle accelerator and is produced, extracted, or converted after extraction for use for a commercial, medical, or research activity; and

(D) Any discrete source of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), other than source material that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in consultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the head of any other appropriate federal agency, determines would pose a threat similar to the threat posed by a discrete source of radium-226 to the public health and safety or the common defense and security including conversion to technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) through extraction, or conversion after extraction, for use for a commercial, medical, or research activity.

(2) "Civil penalty" means any monetary penalty levied on a licensee or registrant because of violations of statutes, regulations, licenses, or registration certificates, but does not include criminal penalties.

(3) "Decommissioning" means final operational activities at a facility to dismantle site structures, to decontaminate site surfaces and remaining structures, to stabilize and contain residual radioactive material, and to carry out any other activities to prepare the site for post-operational care.

(4) "Department" means the West Virginia Department of Health.

(5) "General license" means a license effective under rules promulgated by the department without the filing of an application with the department or the issuance of licensing documents to particular persons to transfer, acquire, own, possess, or use quantities of, or devices or equipment utilizing, radioactive material.

(6) "High-level radioactive waste" means:

(A) Irradiated reactor fuel;

(B) Liquid wastes resulting from the operation of the first cycle solvent extraction system, or equivalent, and the concentrated wastes from subsequent extraction cycles, or equivalent, in a facility for reprocessing irradiated reactor fuel; or

(C) Solids into which such liquid wastes have been converted.

(7) "Ionizing radiation" means gamma rays and X-rays, alpha and beta particles, high-speed electrons, neutrons, protons, and other nuclear particles.

(8) "Licensing" means licensing with the department in accordance with rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this article.

(9) "Low-level radioactive waste" means radioactive waste not classified as high-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, or byproduct material.

(10) "Person" means any individual, corporation, LLC, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private institution, group, agency of this state, other than the Department of Health, political subdivision of this state, any other state or political subdivision or department thereof, and any legal successor, representative, agent, or department of the foregoing, but not including federal government agencies.

(11) "Radiation" means ionizing radiation.

(12) "Radiation emergency" means any situation, excluding events resulting from nuclear warfare, which involves the possibility of accidental release of ionizing radiation that may pose a threat to public health and safety or the environment.

(13) "Radiation generating equipment" means any manufactured product or device, or component part of such a product or device, or any machine or system which during operation can generate or emit radiation except those which emit radiation only from radioactive material.

(14) "Radioactive material" means any material (solid, liquid, or gas) which emits ionizing radiation spontaneously. It includes accelerator-produced, byproduct, naturally occurring, and source and special nuclear materials.

(15) "Registration" means registration with the department in accordance with rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this article.

(16) "Secretary" means the secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health or his or her designee.

(17) "Source material" means uranium or thorium, or any combination thereof, in any physical or chemical form; or ores that contain by weight one-twentieth of one percent (0.05 percent) or more of uranium, thorium, or any combination thereof. Source material does not include special nuclear material.

(18) "Sources of radiation" means, collectively, radioactive material and radiation generating equipment.

(19) "Special nuclear material" means (i) plutonium, uranium 233, uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or in the isotope 235, and any other material which the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission or any successor thereto has determined to be such but does not include source material; or (ii) any material artificially enriched by any of the foregoing but not including source material.

(20) "Specific license" means a license, issued to a named person upon application filed under the rules promulgated pursuant to this article, to use, manufacture, produce, transfer, receive, acquire, or possess quantities of, or devices utilizing, radioactive material.

(21) "Spent nuclear fuel" means irradiated nuclear fuel that has undergone at least one year’s decay since being used as a source of energy in a power reactor. Spent fuel includes the special nuclear material, byproduct material, source material, and other radioactive material associated with fuel assemblies.

(22) "Transuranic waste" means radioactive waste containing alpha emitting transuranic elements, with radioactive half-lives greater than five years, in excess of 10 nanocuries per gram.