Advisor(s)
Charles Wilson
Committee Member(s)
Emily Caffrey
Muhammad Maqbool
School
School of Health Professions
Document Type
Thesis
Department (new version)
Health Professions
Date of Award
9-11-2025
Abstract
Policy surveillance is an analytical collection and study of regulatory action within the public health field. Due to the vastness of the United States regulatory system, large amounts of time and effort are needed for policy surveillance to be accomplished. When considering nuclear decommissioning policies, all state and local regulations should start with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) requirements, however states have the freedom to increase stringency. Policy surveillance allows for both a convenient and approachable way to reference important regulations in a timely manner while also functioning as a method to identify and manage any inconsistencies found between the US states. This framework provides an approachable strategy for meticulously breaking down decommissioning and decontamination (D&D) policies by topic into a database for analysis and visual interpretation. For this research, decommissioning and decontamination regulations were chosen for a regulatory policy surveillance analysis to compare agreement state policies to federal policies enacted in this area and test the value of this approach. Forty-nine states in the US were analyzed for six initial criteria. Agreement states were analyzed for the categories of Criteria of Unrestricted Use, State Unit of Choice, Total Effective Dose Equivalent (TEDE), Exclusion, Target of Free Release, and Incorporated by Reference. Notable irregularities were found between states particularly for Criteria of Unrestricted Use, State Unit of Choice, Exclusion, and Incorporated by Reference. The findings showed that for 10 CFR 20.1402, most states followed the NRC’s policy with Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming all having major variations within their state policies. Analyzing each agreement state for these categories reinforced the value of this approach with the need for branching paths including all D&D criteria and expansion into other nuclear regulations. This framework will benefit users by creating a versatile tool and growing reference for professionals, regulators, educators, and members of the public.
ProQuest ID
Category II - Final.jpeg (113 kB)
Category III - Final.jpeg (109 kB)
Category IV - Final.jpeg (113 kB)
Category V - Final.jpeg (116 kB)
Category VI - Final.jpeg (113 kB)
Chart for Thesis.xlsx (25 kB)
Recommended Citation
Collins, Joshua Gary, "Policy Surveillance Of Decommissioning And Decontamination Regulations" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 7428.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7428
