Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates all radioactive materials (except those that are naturally occurring).

Your laboratory's radiation safety officer must ensure compliance with licensing, radiation safety, reporting and recordkeeping, and packaging and transportation requirements. Laboratory personnel must be knowledgeable of requirements regarding radiation safety and disposal of radioactive materials.

NRC regulations apply to many laboratories since almost all have gas chromatographs with electron capture detectors. Other laboratories have additional radioactive sealed sources and standard solutions containing various radioactive isotopes.

Much of the radioactive waste generated by laboratories results from radiotracer studies using liquid scintillation detection. Often the waste generated from this method is hazardous and radioactive, thus regulated by NRC and EPA. This waste is known as mixed low-level radioactive waste.