WAC 246-232-006   Exemption of certain source material.  (1) A person is exempt from this chapter and chapters 246-233 and 246-235 WAC to the extent that the person receives, possesses, uses, owns, or transfers source material in any chemical mixture, compound, solution or alloy in which the source material is by weight less than 1/20 of one percent (0.05 percent) of the mixture, compound, solution, or alloy.

     (2) A person is exempt from this chapter and chapters 246-233 and 246-235 WAC to the extent that the person receives, possesses, uses or transfers unrefined and unprocessed ore containing source material, provided such person shall not refine or process such ore unless authorized to do so in a specific license.

     (3) A person is exempt from this chapter and chapters 246-233 and 246-235 WAC to the extent that the person receives, possesses, uses or transfers:

     (a) Any quantities of thorium contained in:

     (i) Incandescent gas mantles;

     (ii) Vacuum tubes;

     (iii) Welding rods;

     (iv) Electric lamps for illuminating purposes if each lamp contains fifty milligrams or less of thorium;

     (v) Germicidal lamps, sunlamps and lamps for outdoor or industrial lighting if each lamp contains two grams or less of thorium;

     (vi) Rare earth metals and compounds, mixtures, and products containing 0.25 percent or less by weight thorium, uranium, or any combination of these; or

     (vii) Personnel neutron dosimeters if each dosimeter contains 1.85 gigabecquerels (50 milligrams) or less of thorium;

     (b) Source material contained in the following products:

     (i) Glazed ceramic tableware if the glaze contains twenty percent or less by weight source material; and

     (ii) Piezoelectric ceramic containing two percent or less by weight source material;

     (c) Photographic film, negatives and prints containing uranium or thorium;

     (d) Any finished product or part fabricated of, or containing, tungsten-thorium or magnesium-thorium alloys if the thorium content of the alloy is four percent or less by weight. The exemption contained in this subparagraph shall not be deemed to authorize the chemical, physical or metallurgical treatment or processing of any such product or part;

     (e) Thorium contained in finished optical lenses if each lens contains thirty percent or less by weight of thorium. The exemption contained in this subparagraph shall not be deemed to authorize either:

     (i) The shaping, grinding or polishing of lens or manufacturing processes other than the assembly of such lens into optical systems and devices without alteration of the lens; or

     (ii) The receipt, possession, use or transfer of thorium contained in contact lenses, or in spectacles, or in eyepieces in binoculars or other optical instruments;

     (f) Uranium contained in detector heads for use in fire detection units if each detector head contains 185 becquerels (0.005 microcuries) or less of uranium; or

     (g) Thorium contained in any finished aircraft engine part containing nickel-thoria alloy if:

     (i) The thorium is dispersed in the nickel-thoria alloy in the form of finely divided thoria (thorium dioxide); and

     (ii) The thorium content in the nickel-thoria alloy is four percent or less by weight.

     (4) The exemptions in subsection (3) of this section do not authorize the manufacture of any of the products described.



[Statutory Authority: RCW 70.98.050 and 70.98.080. 09-06-003, § 246-232-006, filed 2/18/09, effective 3/21/09. Statutory Authority: RCW 70.98.050. 01-02-068, § 246-232-006, filed 12/29/00, effective 1/29/01.]