Law no. 111/1996 on the safe deployment of nuclear activities - A law central to the Romanian nuclear law system

Law no. 111/1996 on the safe deployment of nuclear activities was published in its original form in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part no. 267 of 29th October 1996. The complexity of this law prevents from performing a comprehensive analysis of the legal provisions thereof for which reason the author shall review only those aspects he consider to be relevant to the issues dealt with by this law. Furthermore, as the author intends his undertaking to be a comparative analysis of Law no. 111/1996 in its successive stages - from its issue till the present - he uses mostly the present tense even though the law has been amended and in some respects the changes are quite significant. The presentation contains the following three sections: 1. Passing of Law no. 111/1996 on the safe deployment of nuclear activities - a turning point in the development of the Romanian nuclear law; 2. The successive modifications of Law no. 111/1996 on safe deployment of nuclear activities; 3. Law no. 193/2003 for the modification and completion of Law no. 111/1996 on the safe deployment of nuclear activities - a key moment in the modernization of Romanian nuclear law and harmonization with the relevant international requirement. In conclusion, the issue of Law no. 111/1996 on safe deployment of nuclear activities represents a turning point in the development of Romanian nuclear law. From this moment on one may regard it as a modern area of the Romanian law, European in spirit. The pre-existent legal framework - namely the Law no. 61/1974 on the deployment of activities in the Romanian nuclear field - was no longer up to the existing standards and its replacement by a new, modern law, fully harmonized with the European and NATO accession requirements was a must. Such a new, European law was to fully guarantee the safe deployment of nuclear activities for exclusively peaceful purposes, so that the requirements regarding the nuclear safety, protection of professionally exposed personnel, general public, environment and property be met, allowing only for minimum risks provided under the law and integrally observing the obligations undertaken in the agreements and conventions to which Romania is a party. By passing the Law no. 111/1996 Romania has achieved the goal