Ionising radiation from uranium mining in Australia - some legal issues

Despite the industrial dangers associated with the extraction and milling of uranium ore, it was not until 1978 that legislation brought into force a Code of Practice in Australia which required surveillance and monitoring of radiation levels in the mine site and mill and which set limits on the exposure of individual workers. The paper briefly describes the dangers confronting uranium mine and mill workers; it then summarises the 1980 Code of Practice on the Mining and Milling of Radioactive Ores and explains the legal status of that Code. Criminal sanctions attaching to the Code may not readily be enforceable in practice. After alluding to the types of injuries which may flow from exposure to ionising radiation, the paper seeks to demonstrate that breaches of the Code of Practice will not necessarily result in civil liability, on the part of a mine operator, to pay common law damages to workers injured by exposure to ionising radiation. This is largely because the injured worker must prove that a particular injury is causally connected with exposure to a particular agent in a particular place, on the balance of probabilities, and it is doubtful whether a particular radiogenic injury can be traced to a particular cause. Thus, in practice, workers exposed to ionising radiation may not be able to avail themselves of common law remedies. Their rights under workers compensation legislation may be exclusive, in the circumstances. The paper concludes with suggestions for reform