Equipment to be reused for non-beryllium work, excessed, or disposed of shall be decontaminated to the extent practical taking into consideration its end use or disposition. Equipment to be released to the general public or non-beryllium areas of DOE contractor facilities shall meet the release criteria (see Section 3.3); equipment to be released to other beryllium work areas of DOE contractors shall meet the housekeeping standard (see Section 3.3).

Release of equipment to the general public or non-beryllium areas of DOE contractor facilities is conditional on the recipient's commitment to implement controls to prevent foreseeable beryllium exposure considering the nature of the items and their foreseeable use.

The disposal and excessing of potentially beryllium-contaminated equipment shall be handled in accordance with this document and Document 21.5.

3.13.2 Facilities

Facilities or work areas to be removed from beryllium controls shall be cleaned to the release or housekeeping standard, as appropriate for subsequent use, and contaminated equipment shall be cleaned, removed, or enclosed to prevent exposures.

The shutdown and transfer of beryllium work areas shall be handled in accordance with this document and Document 12.7, "Shutdown or Transfer of Facilities, Operations or Associated Equipment," in the ES

3.14 Beryllium Article Exemption

Under 10 CFR 850.2 (Applicability), articles are exempt from the requirements of the rule. The term "article," as used in the exemption, has a meaning that is subject to specific criteria derived from the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (i.e., 29 CFR 1910) and from interpretations in OSHA Compliance Instruction CPL 2-2.38D. An article is a manufactured item that:

* Is formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture.

* Has end-use functions that depend in whole or in part on its shape or design during end use.

* Does not release beryllium or otherwise result in exposure to airborne concentrations of beryllium under normal conditions of use.

The following three examples illustrate the differences between items that can be considered articles and items that cannot:

1. Example of a nonexempt item. A piece of beryllium stock that is to be machined into a part is not an article because (1) it is not in its finished form, (2) its use is dependent on that form, and (3) machining the piece will produce beryllium particulates in potentially hazardous quantities.

2. Example of a nonexempt item. A finished part that has gone through the final cleaning step of its manufacturing process is swiped and found to have a residual surface contamination of less than 0.2 µg Be/100 cm2. However, further handling or use (e.g., abrading the surface or exposing the object to an environment that results in removable oxidation, but not including operations that do not abrade the surface) results in removal beryllium surface contamination greater than 0.2 µg Be/100 cm2. The part is no longer an article and is subject to the rule. Beryllium metal or beryllium-copper alloy objects are expected to meet this criteria; beryllium oxide objects may not meet the criteria, although the determination depends on use.

3. Example of an exempt item. A finished part that has gone through the final cleaning step of its manufacturing process is swiped and found to have residual surface contamination of less than 0.2 µg Be/100 cm2, and further handling will not abrade the part's surfaces, i.e., there will be no removal beryllium surface contamination exceeding 0.2 µg Be/100 cm2. This part is an article and is exempt from the rule.