42 U.S.C. § 7911
Section 7911 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Kerr-Mcgee Chemical Corporation v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and United States of America, State of Illinois, Intervenor. People of the State of Illinois v. USA & Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1990)
Most recently applied in 774 F. Supp. 2d 40 - El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. United States (March 2011)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of this subchapter—
(1) The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Energy.
(2) The term “Commission” means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
(3) The term “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(4) The term “Indian tribe” means any tribe, band, clan, group, pueblo, or community of Indians recognized as eligible for services provided by the Secretary of the Interior to Indians.
(5) The term “person” means any individual, association, partnership, corporation, firm, joint venture, trust, government entity, and any other entity, except that such term does not include any Indian or Indian tribe.
(6) The term “processing site” means—
(A) any site, including the mill, containing residual radioactive materials at which all or substantially all of the uranium was produced for sale to any Federal agency prior to January 1, 1971 under a contract with any Federal agency, except in the case of a site at or near Slick Rock, Colorado, unless—
(i) such site was owned or controlled as of January 1, 1978, or is thereafter owned or controlled, by any Federal agency, or
(ii) a license (issued by the Commission or its predecessor agency under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 [42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.] or by a State as permitted under section 274 of such Act [42 U.S.C. 2021]) for the production at such site of any uranium or thorium product derived from ores is in effect on January 1, 1978, or is issued or renewed after such date; and
(B) any other real property or improvement thereon which—
(i) is in the vicinity of such site, and
(ii) is determined by the Secretary, in consultation with the Commission, to be contaminated with residual radioactive materials derived from such site.
Any ownership or control of an area by a Federal agency which is acquired pursuant to a cooperative agreement under this subchapter shall not be treated as ownership or control by such agency for purposes of subparagraph (A)(i). A license for the production of any uranium product from residual radioactive materials shall not be treated as a license for production from ores within the meaning of subparagraph (A)(ii) if such production is in accordance with section 7918(b) of this title.
(7) The term “residual radioactive material” means—
(A) waste (which the Secretary determines to be radioactive) in the form of tailings resulting from the processing of ores for the extraction of uranium and other valuable constituents of the ores; and
(B) other waste (which the Secretary determines to be radioactive) at a processing site which relate to such processing, including any residual stock of unprocessed ores or low-grade materials.
(8) The term “tailings” means the remaining portion of a metal-bearing ore after some or all of such metal, such as uranium, has been extracted.
(9) The term “Federal agency” includes any executive agency as defined in section 105 of title 5.
(10) The term “United States” means the 48 contiguous States and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and the territories and possessions of the United States.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, referred to in par. (6)(A)(ii), is act Aug. 30, 1954, ch. 1073, 68 Stat. 921, as amended, which is classified generally to chapter 23 (§2011 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 2011 of this title and Tables.