Myanmar's Effort to Sustain Capacity Building and Promoting Safety Culture in Radiation Protection

The widespread applications of radioactive materials and radiation generating equipment in the field of industry, medicine, agriculture and research in Myanmar necessitated establishment of an efficient regulatory framework and consequently the Division of Atomic Energy (DAE) constituted to exercise regulatory control over the safe usage of the radioactive materials and the radiation generating equipment. Myanmar has gone through many improvements since 2016. Myanmar recently acceded to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) and Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) and its amendment on 6th December 2016. Furthermore, Myanmar has expressed a political commitment with regards to the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources. As a legislation issue in Myanmar, Division of Atomic Energy (DAE) under the Ministry of Education (MOE), promulgated Atomic Energy law on 8th July 1998 for safe use of radiation source in the country. It was mainly based on radiation safety and does not cover nuclear safety, nuclear security and safeguards (3S strategies). In order to strengthen its national nuclear related legislation, DAE has just recently completed the drafting of the Myanmar Nuclear Law that prohibits the use, production, storage, distribution and import/export of nuclear and other radioactive materials without government license.