The norm factor: Managing liabilities from naturally occurring radioactive material

Beginning in the mid-1950s, the primary focus of government regulation of radioactive materials has been on the control of exposures to nuclear fuel cycle materials (i.e., those radioactive materials that are generated during the course of the mining, processing, and use of uranium to produce weapons and energy). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its predecessor agency have had exclusive jurisdiction over such nuclearfuel cycle materials. The past five years, however, have seen a substantial increase in government interest in preventing the potentially harmful effects of human exposures to other forms of radioactive materials not regulated by the NRC (collectively referred to as naturally occurring radioactive materials, or NORM). As government warnings about the potential hazards of NORM have increased and regulations designed to control NORM have proliferated, the number of lawsuits alleging property damage or bodily injury from exposures to NORM-containing substances has also increased. This litigation, in turn, has generated disputes between insurers and policy holders over whether standard-form liability policies were meant to provide coverage for such claims.