§ 31-13-7 — Permits for disposal of radioactive waste; bonding of permittees

(a) No person shall construct or operate a site or other facility for the concentration, storage, or burial of radioactive waste without first securing a permit for such construction or operation from the director of the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources. The director, under the conditions he prescribes, may require the submission of such plans, specifications, and other information as he deems relevant in connection with the issuance of such permit. The director may issue a permit for the construction or operation of such a site or other facility upon a determination that the construction or operation would be consistent with the purposes and stated policy of this chapter. Any permit which may be issued by the director shall specify the conditions under which the site or facility shall be operated. The director, in specifying such conditions, shall have the power and authority to require a permittee to establish and maintain records; to make reports; to install, maintain, and use monitoring equipment or methods including, but not limited to, biological monitoring methods or emission and ambient monitoring devices; to sample any emission or discharge in accordance with such methods, at such locations, at such intervals, and in such manner as the director shall prescribe; and to provide such other information as he may reasonably require. Any permit issued shall be subject to periodic review; and the director may revoke or modify any permit if the holder fails to comply with any conditions thereof. The director is authorized to adopt, modify, repeal, and promulgate, after due notice and public hearing held in accordance with and established pursuant to Chapter 13 of Title 50, the "Georgia Administrative Procedure Act," rules and regulations not inconsistent with this Code section, for purposes of administering this Code section. (b) The director may require the posting of a bond by the proposed permittee or operator, payable to the state, as a condition of any permit, in order to assure the availability of funds to the state in the event of abandonment, insolvency, or other inability of a permittee to meet the requirements of the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources for the safe collection and disposition of sources of ionizing radiation in the event of an accident, discontinuance of operation, or any circumstance which results in a potential radiation hazard at a site or facility for the concentration, storage, or burial of radioactive waste, which site is occupied by the permittee or was formerly under its possession, ownership, or control. The Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources is authorized to establish, by rule or regulation, the bonding requirements of permittees by range of monetary amounts. In establishing such requirements, the director of the Environmental Protection Division shall give due consideration to the probable extent of contamination, the amount of possible property damage, the costs of removal and disposal of sources of radiation used by the permittee, and the costs of reclamation of the property in the event of abandonment, insolvency, or other inability of the permittee to perform such services to the satisfaction of the director. The director shall have authority upon finding that conditions under this Code section have not been met or when he determines that an imminent hazard to the public health and welfare exists to require forfeiture of bond and use the money therefrom to take any action deemed necessary to protect the public health and welfare. A permittee who abandons a site or facility without taking the required actions to meet the requirements of the director of the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any bonding or financial protection requirements established by the director pursuant to this Code section shall not apply to the state, or any agency of the state, or to the storage of spent fuel possessed under 10 CFR Part 50 or Part 70, which fuel was generated at an electric generating utilization facility and which is stored at such utilization facility in facilities licensed under 10 CFR Part 50 or at another such in-state utilization facility in facilities licensed under 10 CFR Part 50.