§2014 Definitions

Summary

Defines the words used in this chapter so people know what the terms mean. "Agency of the United States" means the executive, legislative, or judicial branches and their parts. "Agreement for cooperation" means an agreement with another nation or a regional defense organization that is allowed by other listed sections of this title and made under section 2153. "Atomic energy" means energy released by nuclear fission or nuclear transformation. "Atomic weapon" means a device that uses atomic energy whose main purpose is to be a weapon (not its separate transportation parts). "Byproduct material" covers four kinds of radioactive material: radioactive material made or activated when producing or using special nuclear material; tailings or wastes from getting uranium or thorium from ore; certain discrete radium-226 sources and materials made radioactive by particle accelerators when produced or converted for commercial, medical, or research use before, on, or after August 8, 2005; and certain naturally occurring radioactive sources the Commission finds similarly dangerous and that are extracted or converted for use before, on, or after August 8, 2005. "Commission" means the Atomic Energy Commission. "Common defense and security" means the common defense and security of the United States. "Defense information" means any information that a government agency authorized to classify information says affects national defense. "Design" means specifications, plans, drawings, the information in them, or related research and development data. "Extraordinary nuclear occurrence" means an event that releases source, special nuclear, or byproduct material offsite or creates offsite radiation that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Secretary of Energy decides is substantial and likely to cause large offsite damage; that decision is final and must be based on written criteria, and "offsite" means away from the location defined in the applicable indemnity agreement. "Financial protection" means the ability to pay damages and to cover costs of investigating, defending, and settling claims. "Government agency" means executive departments, commissions, independent establishments, government-owned corporations, and other executive branch entities. "Indemnitor" means an insurer, a licensee or contractor who has financial protection obligations, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Secretary of Energy when they take on obligations in an indemnity agreement. "International arrangement" means an international agreement approved by Congress or a treaty while it is in force, but not an agreement for cooperation. "Energy Committees" means the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. "Licensed activity" means an activity licensed under this chapter and covered by section 2210(a). "Nuclear incident" means any event, including an extraordinary nuclear occurrence, that causes injury, sickness, death, or property loss from the radioactive, toxic, explosive, or other hazardous properties of source, special nuclear, or byproduct material; for certain parts of section 2210, the term also includes specified occurrences outside the United States under the conditions set in those parts. "Operator" means a person who controls the controls of a production or utilization facility. "Person" means an individual or many types of organizations and entities, including government agencies (other than the Commission), states, political subdivisions, foreign governments, and successors or agents of any of these. "Person indemnified" means the person who has an indemnity agreement or must have financial protection and others who may be liable, with special rules for incidents inside the United States, for the nuclear ship Savannah, and for certain incidents outside the United States under section 2210(d). "Produce" (special nuclear material) means to make, manufacture, refine, separate, or otherwise create special nuclear material. "Production facility" means equipment or a device the Commission says can produce special nuclear material in quantities significant to defense or public health, or important component parts, but (except for export rules) does not include equipment that separates uranium isotopes or enriches uranium-235. "Public liability" means legal liability from a nuclear incident or a precautionary evacuation, including reasonable extra response costs by a State, but it excludes workers’ compensation claims of employees at the site, acts of war, and, in certain parts of section 2210, loss of property at the licensed site; it can include damage to property of indemnified persons if covered by the required financial protection. "Research and development" means theoretical study or experiments and the practical testing or demonstration of scientific or technical ideas, including experimental production and testing of models and devices. "Restricted Data" means data about designing, making, or using atomic weapons; producing special nuclear material; or using special nuclear material to make energy, except data removed from that category under section 2162. "Source material" means uranium, thorium, or other materials the Commission designates under section 2091, or ores that contain them at concentrations the Commission sets. "Special nuclear material" means plutonium, uranium enriched in isotope 233 or 235, or other materials the Commission designates as special nuclear material, and materials made by enriching these, but it does not include source material. "United States" in a geographic sense includes all U.S. territories and possessions, the Canal Zone, and Puerto Rico. "Utilization facility" means equipment or a device (not an atomic weapon) the Commission says can use special nuclear material in quantities significant to defense or public health, or is specially adapted to use atomic energy in such a way, or important parts of such equipment. "Fusion machine" means a machine that fuses atomic nuclei into different elements, isotopes, or particles and directly captures and uses the resulting particles, heat, or radiation. "High-level radioactive waste" and "spent nuclear fuel" have the meanings given in section 10101. "Legal costs" in section 2210 means the costs a plaintiff or defendant pays in starting, prosecuting, investigating, settling, or defending claims under that section. "Nuclear waste activities" in section 2210 means activities the Secretary of Energy may do involving storage, handling, transport, treatment, disposal, or research on spent fuel, high-level waste, or transuranic waste, including work under the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (Public Law 96–164, sec. 213). "Precautionary evacuation" means an evacuation ordered by a State or local official, under State law, when a non-nuclear-incident event poses imminent radiological danger to people or property near a facility or transport route. "Public liability action" means any lawsuit claiming public liability and is treated as an action under section 2210, with state law of the place of the incident used unless it conflicts with that section. "Transuranic waste" means material contaminated with elements having atomic numbers above 92 (like neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium) at concentrations greater than 10 nanocuries per gram, or at other concentrations the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sets to protect public health.