(1) No later than October 1, 1988, the authority shall organize the establishment of an international low-level radioactive waste research and education institute. The authority may enter into agreements with a state university or college or a consortium of universities or colleges as may be necessary to establish the institute in accordance with this section. The authority shall establish a process by which a state university or college or a consortium of universities or colleges may indicate an interest in accepting the institute as an independent entity. The institute shall be governed by a board of governors who are jointly selected and appointed by the authority and the designated representative of the university, college, or consortium. The governors shall be as follows:
  (a) One individual from a public utility that produces low-level radioactive waste as a result of the generation of electrical power.

Terms Used In Michigan Laws 333.26217

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Authority: means the low-level radioactive waste authority established in section 3. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Compact: means a contractual, cooperative agreement among 2 or more states to provide for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste that is reflected by the passage of statutes by the participating states. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Director: means the director of public health. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Disposal: means the isolation of waste from the biosphere by emplacement in the disposal site or as otherwise authorized in section 13709(3) of part 137. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Disposal site: means a geographic location in this state upon which the disposal unit and any other structures and appurtenances are located, the property upon which any monitoring equipment is located, and the isolation distance from the disposal unit to adjacent property lines. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
  • Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
  • fund: means the fund created in section 20. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Institute: means the international low-level radioactive waste research and education institute. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Institutional control: means the continued surveillance, monitoring, and care of the disposal site after site closure and stabilization to insure the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare, and the environment until the contents of the disposal site no longer have a radioactive content that is greater than the natural background radiation of the host site as determined during its site characterization. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Operation: means the control, supervision, or implementation of the actual physical activities involved in the acceptance, storage, disposal, and monitoring of waste at the disposal site, the maintenance of the disposal site, and any other responsibility pertaining to the disposal unit and the disposal site. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
  • Release: means any intentional or unintentional spilling, leaking, pumping, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, disposing, or placing of waste into the environment, except in compliance with all of the following:
  (i) Part 137. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • Site closure and stabilization: means the actions taken at the disposal site during the time period after the closure of the disposal unit during which on-site low-level radioactive waste is disposed in accordance with part 137, equipment is dismantled, decontaminated, removed for reuse or disposed of, and radioactive residues are removed from, or properly isolated on, the disposal site in preparation for transfer of ownership of the disposal site to the federal government. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
  • waste: means radioactive material that consists of or contains class A, B, or C radioactive waste as defined by 10 C. See Michigan Laws 333.26202
    •   (b) One individual from a business that is not a public utility but produces low-level radioactive waste.
      (c) One individual from a medical facility that generates radioactive waste.
      (d) Two individuals from environmental or public interest organizations.
      (e) Three college or university faculty or staff members who have expertise in nuclear physics or nuclear chemistry and in the handling, processing, or reduction of low-level radioactive waste.
      (f) One individual representing the general public.
      (g) The director of public health or his or her authorized representative.
      (h) The attorney general or his or her authorized representative.
      (2) In addition to the governors appointed under subsection (1), if this state is a member of a compact, the governing body of the compact may appoint 1 representative to the board of governors who shall serve as an ex officio nonvoting member.
      (3) The powers and duties of the institute shall include all of the following:
      (a) To develop contracts with universities and other research institutions to conduct research on waste issues, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
      (i) The method by which a determination can be made regarding the amounts of wastes specified by radionuclide that are generated within this state, and within compact member states as long as this state remains a member of a compact, to be disposed of in the disposal site in order to provide an inventory and guide disposal options and risk assessments.
      (ii) The construction media, waste forms, and other engineering features necessary to assure containment of wastes, to reduce the potential for a release of waste.
      (iii) The development of features to detect and control a release of waste.
      (iv) The cost versus risk analysis of available waste treatment methods, with an emphasis on waste treatment methods that could adversely or positively affect the long-term performance of the disposal site.
      (v) Transportation management systems that prevent public radiation exposure and facilitate incident response planning.
      (vi) The use of mediation and human resource methods to facilitate positive interaction between the operators of the disposal site and the public.
      (vii) The basic frameworks to provide for institutional control and the accumulation and use of economic resources necessary for institutional control.
      (viii) Development of new materials and methods to reduce or eliminate the generation of waste.
      (ix) Development of methods for state-of-the-art environmental monitoring of the disposal site.
      (x) Economic implications of different waste management and treatment options.
      (b) To develop and operate a technical resource program to provide information and assistance to persons involved with public policy issues surrounding the management of the disposal of waste.
      (c) To develop and implement education programs that assist the public in understanding issues surrounding the generation, possession, transportation, processing, collecting, and disposal of waste and the site closure and stabilization, post closure observation and maintenance, and institutional control of the disposal site.
      (4) The governors appointed as provided in subsections (1) and (2) shall serve for terms of 4 years, or until a successor is appointed, whichever is later, except that of the members first appointed, 3 shall serve for 2 years and 3 shall serve for 3 years.
      (5) If a vacancy occurs on the board of governors, an appointment shall be made for the unexpired term in the same manner as the original appointment.
      (6) A majority of the governors of the institute shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at a meeting of the board. Action by the board of governors shall be by a majority of the votes cast.
      (7) A meeting of the board of governors shall be held in compliance with the open meetings act, Act No. 267 of the Public Acts of 1976, being section 15.261 to 15.275 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, and notice of the time, date, and place of the meeting shall be given in the manner required by that act.
      (8) In addition to research grant awards, not more than $250,000.00 annually shall be available for appropriation from the low-level radioactive waste management fund to meet the general operating expenses of the institute.
      (9) A governor of the institute may receive compensation for his or her service, and shall be reimbursed for expenses that are necessarily incurred in the performance of duties as a member of the institute.
      (10) The board of governors shall meet at least quarterly.
      (11) The institute may form a private nonprofit corporation, if the board of governors determines that doing so will assist in fulfilling its functions under this section.
      (12) The board of governors shall annually prepare a report that details the sources of funds, amount of funds received from each source, and the use of all funds that are received by the institute or a nonprofit corporation formed by the board of governors during the reporting year. Any report prepared by or on behalf of the board of governors shall include a list of all of the sources that contribute funds for the operation of the institute.
      (13) Within 180 days after the effective date of the amendatory act that added this subsection, the board of governors shall prepare the following reports and provide these reports to the appropriate standing committees of the senate and house of representatives that primarily address issues pertaining to the environment and natural resources.
      (a) A report on waste management options available to this state. The report shall also list and evaluate feasible options to encourage a reduction in the amount of waste generated in this state. The board of governors shall identify and evaluate options and make recommendations to the authority regarding iterim waste storage and provision of final disposal capacity.
      (b) A volunteer host community program plan which, at a minimum, incorporates the provisions of section 7. The authority shall obtain public comment in the preparation of this plan.
      (14) A writing prepared, owned, used, in possession of, or retained by the board of governors in the performance of an official function is subject to the freedom of information act, Act No. 442 of the Public Acts of 1976, being section 15.231 to 15.246 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
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