Enabling the safe, secure and peaceful use of irradiation facilities through law

Safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technology promises significant benefits to society, but the ionizing radiation essential to so many applications can pose significant risks to people's health and to the environment. Well-structured legal arrangements are required to assess, manage and control this radiation to minimize such risks. Ionizing radiation facilities (IRFs), important in many areas that involve nuclear technology, do not pose radiation risks comparable to nuclear power plants and so are not subject to the same radiological safety and nuclear security requirements as reactors. IRFs and their related activities must be subject to standards of safety consistent with a graded approach. That is, they must be licensed, regulated, and inspected by regulatory bodies. States have the fundamental responsibility of establishing, maintaining and strengthening comprehensive national legal frameworks, including regulatory frameworks. In many countries, the legal hierarchy is such that at the top level there are constitutional instruments, followed by a legislative framework at the statutory level, comprising of enactments of laws. This framework provides the legal basis for implementing legally binding and non-binding international instruments such as the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management and the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources, as well as relevant IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance. The legislative framework is the foundation for a system of regulatory control and provides for the establishment or designation of a regulatory body with the requisite independence, human and financial resources, and a clearly defined set of functions. This includes standard setting, authorization, inspection and enforcement, as well as the clear delineation and coordination of responsibilities. This legislative framework is essential for the safe, secure and peaceful use of ionizing radiation and countries look to IAEA support in establishing one.