Contributions of non-governmental international organizations to nuclear standardization

Of over 4700 nuclear and radiation protection standards, laws, regulations, recommendations, etc., which have been issued by 52 countries and several governmental international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD (OECD/NEA) or the Commission of the European Communities (CEC), or non-governmental organizations such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the International Commission on Radiation Units (ICRU), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), more than 90% are national, and more than one-half of those of a non-regulatory nature. Both the number and importance of international standards are, however, increasing. The two most important non-governmental international standards organizations are the ISO, which founded the Technical Committee (TC) 85 ''Nuclear Energy'' with several subcommittees in 1957, and the closely associated IEC with its TC 45 ''Nuclear Instrumentation'' formed in 1966. There are over 20 member countries actively participating in the work in each of them, with additional observer countries and liaisons to the other relevant international organizations such as the IAEA. A brief review is given of some of the experience which has been gained by ISO/TC 85 and IEC/TC 45, and its work programme and accomplishments, considering, in particular, recent developments during the October 1988 Plenary Meetings of both IEC/TC 45 and ISO/TC 85. The paper covers nuclear safety and instrumentation, radiation protection, and the nuclear fuel cycle, as well as interface issues including definitions and terminology, interaction of the activities with the work of other national and international organizations, etc. Some problem areas are also briefly discussed. (author). 5 refs, 1 fig., 6 tabs