Improvement of National Regulations on Radiation Protection by Implementing IAEA General Safety Requirements (GSR Part 3)

The PNRA Regulations PAK/904 describes mandatory regulatory requirements for radiation protection that apply to nuclear and radiation facilities operated in Pakistan. In 2007, the International Commission on Radiological Protection provided the suggestions for radiation protection and safety of sources in its publication named ICRP 103. Therefore in 2014, the IAEA amended the document on Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources and published the new document titled IAEA General Safety Requirements (GSR Part 3). Furthermore, the IAEA also has performed an Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission in Pakistan that provided some recommendations and suggestions to revise the national requirements for radiation protection. In this paper, the gap between PAK/904 and GSR Part 3 is identified through detail analysis. Furthermore, the importance to incorporate the new IAEA requirements in national regulations and its implementation in Pakistan is discussed in detail. As the new requirements are essential from the perspective of radiation protection, the discussions about the mechanism of implementation are useful for the regulatory bodies, which are in the process of revising their national requirements after the IAEA GSR Part 3 publication. The IAEA GSR Part 3 is a new document. Consequently, experience feedback and mechanism for GSR Part 3 implementation is not available, and is still under debate in many countries including Pakistan. The PNRA fully complies with international standards and requirements, especially the IAEA standards.