42 U.S.C. § 7914 — Acquisition and disposition of lands and materials

(a) State acquisition; windfall profits prevention. If the Secretary, with the Commission's agreement, decides it's appropriate, each cooperative agreement can require the state to buy the designated processing site, including any needed property interest. In deciding whether to require this, the Secretary must consider preventing the state from making a windfall profit. (b) Disposition and stabilization site for residual radioactive materials; Federal site available. If the Secretary and Commission agree that removing the leftover radioactive material from a site makes sense, the agreement must require the state to buy land to permanently and safely dispose of that material. The state doesn't have to buy this land if the Secretary, with the Commission's agreement, instead designates a site already controlled by the Secretary or made available by the Secretary of the Interior under section 7916(2). (c) Boundary limitations. A state is never required, under (a) or (b), to buy any property outside the core processing site described in section 7911(6)(A), or outside the disposal site itself. (d) Purchasers of sites; notification; rules and regulations. Except for sites on Indian land, the state must make sure — under Secretary-issued rules — that anyone who later buys a cleaned-up processing site is told beforehand about what radioactive material was there and removed, including when. If the state itself owns the site, it must give that notice to any prospective buyer before signing a sale agreement. The Secretary must issue rules requiring this same information to be recorded in local land records. This notice requirement doesn't apply to nearby contaminated property described in section 7911(6)(B) if it's in a state the Secretary has certified has its own equivalent program. (e) State disposition; terms and conditions; fair market value; offer of sale to prior owner. Land or interests the state bought under (a) can, with the Secretary's and Commission's agreement, be sold by the state, permanently kept (or donated to another government body) for park, recreation, or public use, or transferred to the United States under (f). No such land can be sold without the Secretary's and Commission's consent, and no land used for waste disposal can be sold or permanently kept. Before selling such land, the state must first offer to sell it back to the prior owner at fair market value. (f) Transfer of title to Secretary; payment from funds for administrative and legal costs; custody of property; compliance with health and environmental standards for uranium mill tailings; transfer of title restriction. Once the Secretary (with the Commission's agreement) decides cleanup is finished, the state must transfer to the Secretary title to both the leftover radioactive material and any land the state bought to hold it. No payment is made for this transfer, other than covering administrative and legal costs. The Secretary (or another federal agency the President names) then takes custody, and must maintain the property under a Commission license that protects public health, safety, and the environment. The Commission can require monitoring, maintenance, and emergency actions to meet the standards in section 2022(a). No other action may be taken with the property unless Congress specifically authorizes it after November 8, 1978, and the United States cannot transfer title to this property to any person or state, except as allowed under subsection (h). (g) Reimbursement; fair market value; deposits in Treasury. If a state sells land under (e)(1)(A), the agreement must require it to promptly reimburse the Secretary from the sale proceeds — the lesser of (1) the share of fair market value matching the federal government's share of the original purchase cost, or (2) the total amount the Secretary originally paid. The Secretary sets fair market value as of the sale date, and any money the Secretary receives goes to the U.S. Treasury. (h) Subsurface mineral rights; sale, lease, or other disposition; restoration costs for disturbance of residual radioactive materials. Nothing in an agreement stops the Secretary of the Interior — with the Secretary of Energy and the Commission agreeing — from selling or leasing subsurface mineral rights under land where radioactive waste is buried and later transferred to the United States, as long as the Commission requires steps ensuring the waste won't be disturbed. If the waste is disturbed anyway, the Secretary of the Interior must make sure it's restored to a safe condition before the minerals are transferred, with the person who bought the mineral rights paying for that restoration.