United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Protecting People and the Environment

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Disposal Requirements for Specific and Exempt Licensed Smoke Detectors

HPPOS-150 PDR-9111220094

Title: Disposal Requirements for Specific and Exempt

Licensed Smoke Detectors

See the letter from J. W. N. Hickey to D. L. Tremblay

(Simplex Time Recorder Company) dated October 5, 1981.

Imported smoke detectors possessed under a specific license

must be returned to the manufacturer. A licensee who

possesses detectors distributed as exempt items is exempt

from regulatory requirements regarding the smoke detectors,

and they may be disposed of as ordinary trash.

Your letter to General Counsel dated September 8, 1981 has

been referred to the Division of Fuel Cycle and Material

Safety. In our telephone conversion, you explained that

your company possesses two types of smoke detectors: those

imported, possessed, and distributed in accordance with NRC

License Nos. 20-17584-01 and 20-17584-02E, and those

obtained from an American manufacturer as exempt units.

We agreed that the imported detectors must be returned to

the manufacturer in accordance with your licenses, and that

your letter concerns the domestic units. To the extent

that you possess domestic smoke detectors distributed as

exempt units, you are exempt from any regulatory

requirements. Therefore, you may dispose of these units as

ordinary trash.

Regulatory references: 10 CFR 30.20, 10 CFR 32.26

Subject codes: 3.3, 9.0

Applicability: Byproduct material

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Thursday, March 29, 2012