Contaminated Site Clean-up Information (clu-in): Internet Seminar Audio Archives

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI) has primary responsibility for implementing the remedial long-term (non-emergency) portion of a key U.S. law regulating cleanup: the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, CERCLA, nicknamed "Superfund." The Superfund program generally addresses radioactive contamination in a consistent manner as it addresses chemical contamination, except where there are technical differences between radionuclides and other chemicals. For example, cleanup levels for radioactive contamination at sites are generally expressed in terms of risk levels (e.g., 10-4), rather than millirem or millisieverts, as a unit of measure. Although EPA and other US agencies have issued millirem-based regulations under other statutory authorities, under CERCLA EPA promulgated a risk range of 10-4 to 10-6 as a standard of protectiveness for all carcinogens including radionuclides. CERCLA guidance recomme