The Radioactive Substances (Basic Safety Standards) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Made: 2nd April 2003

Coming into operation: 1st May 2003

The Department of the Environment being a department designated[^f00001] for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972[^f00002] in relation to the safety measures in regard to radioactive substances and the emission of ionising radiation, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(2) of that Act and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Radioactive Substances (Basic Safety Standards) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 and shall come into operation on 1st May 2003.

Interpretation

2

• (1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954[^f00003] shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

• (2) In these Regulations –

• (a) “the Chief Inspector” means the chief inspector appointed by the Department under section 4 of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993[^f00004];

• (b) “the Directive” means Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from the exposure to ionising radiation and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom.

• (c) “the 1993 Act” means the Radioactive Substances Act 1993.

Duty of Chief Inspector to observe requirements of the Directive

3

• (1) In discharging his functions in relation to the disposal of radioactive waste under the 1993 Act, the Chief Inspector shall, whenever applicable, ensure that –

• (a) all exposures to ionising radiation of any members of the public and of the population as a whole resulting from the disposal of radioactive waste are kept as low as reasonably achievable, economic and social factors being taken into account; and

• (b) the sum of the doses resulting from the exposure of any members of the public to ionising radiation should not exceed the dose limits set out in Article 12 of the Directive (subject to the exclusions set out in Article 5(c) of the Directive).

• (2) Shall have regard to the following maximum doses which may result from a defined source, for use at the planning stage of the radiation protection –

• (a) 0.3 millisieverts per year from any source ...; or

• (b) 0.5 millisieverts per year from the discharges from any single site.

• (3) In discharging his duty under paragraph (1) the Chief Inspector shall observe the following requirements of the Directive –

• (a) when estimating effective dose and equivalent dose—

• (i) from external exposure, chapters 4 and 5 of the International Commission for Radiological Protection Publication 116; and

• (ii) from internal exposure, chapter 1 of the International Commission for Radiological Protection Publication 119; and

• (b) in estimating population doses, Article 66 .

• (c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Amendment to the Radioactive Substances Act 1993

4

• (1) Section 15 (Further exemptions from sections 13 and 14) of the 1993 Act shall be amended as follows –

• (a) In subsection (1) after “clocks and watches” (where those words first appear) there shall be inserted the following –

• on or from any premises in the circumstances described in subsection (1A)

• (b) After subsection (1) there shall be inserted –

• (1A) The circumstances referred to in subsection (1) are that –

• (a) no radionuclide other than tritium, promethium 147 or radium 226 is present in any clock or watch on the premises (whether or not any radioactive waste arises from it),

• (b) no such clock or watch contains more than one of those radionuclides, and

• (c) either subsection (1B) or (1C) is satisfied.

• (1B) This subsection is satisfied if the total quantity of tritium divided by 10⁹, plus the total quantity of promethium 147 divided by 10⁷, plus the total quantity of radium 226 divided by 10⁴, in all such clocks and watches does not exceed 1 (quantity in each case measured in becquerels).

• (1C) This subsection is satisfied if –

• (a) all such clocks and watches fall within a description specified in the first column of the table below,

• (b) radioactive waste arises from no more than five of them,

• (c) none of those five gives rise to a quantity of radioactive waste exceeding the figure in the third column of the Table corresponding to the relevant radionuclide listed in the second column.

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of the Environment on 2nd April 2003.

Judena Goldring — A senior officer of the — Department of the Environment

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 in order to implement in part the Basic Safety Standards Directive (Council Directive 96/29/Euratom) in relation to the disposal or accumulation of radioactive waste arising from clocks and watches.

Section 15 of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 is amended so that further exemptions from sections 13 and 14 of the Act provided for in section 15, in relation to the disposal or accumulation of radioactive waste arising from clocks or watches, are limited to the circumstances –

• (a) where the total radioactivity on any premises does not exceed the relevant reporting levels set out in column 2 of Table A to Annex 1 of the Directive; or

• (b) where specified limits on the quantity of radioactive waste and the types of clocks and watches are met.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1977/1718

[^f00002]: 1972 c. 68

[^f00003]: 1954 c. 33 (N.I.)

[^f00004]: 1993 c. 12

Editorial notes

[^key-57fca9cac3c624ab73a3903eabf55e2e]: Reg. 1 in operation at 1.5.2003, see reg. 1

[^key-88d5fd0aeb8b9d381094f68e0a95fe23]: Reg. 2 in operation at 1.5.2003, see reg. 1

[^key-1d766b75c3d27fa10aa97493d3b3dfab]: Reg. 3 in operation at 1.5.2003, see reg. 1

[^key-99e7b76acc99e37c02ce33177a5858c1]: Reg. 4 in operation at 1.5.2003, see reg. 1

[^key-8b1d1db1de92eeaee367feff7af40acc]: Words in reg. 2 inserted (1.6.2018) by The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(2)(a)

[^key-b9259cbcbcaefd3c8ba47d3517cf481f]: Words in reg. 3(1)(b) substituted (1.6.2018) by The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(a)(i)

[^key-2891f919d5ae1c6fda28200f6d62491a]: Words in reg. 3(1)(b) substituted (1.6.2018) by The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(a)(ii)

[^key-74b706ef6e5e845dd6468b415ebb34e2]: Words in reg. 3(2)(a) omitted (1.6.2018) by virtue of The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(b)

[^key-82de90b8849945721bc1e9a7b9a474a9]: Reg. 3(3)(a) substituted (1.6.2018) by The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(c)(i)

[^key-2fe9db4ef5a9bf8b6b869bfdcc2b6e8d]: Words in reg. 3(3)(b) substituted (1.6.2018) by The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(aa)(c)(ii)

[^key-432ef625eca308c0f36fe5415cc09851]: Full stop in reg. 3(3)(b) substituted (1.6.2018) by The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(bb)(c)(ii)

[^key-1d96b127cb77d0c3c4e0fedd45f6549f]: Reg. 3(3)(c) omitted (1.6.2018) by virtue of The Radioactive Substances (Modification of Enactments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 (S.R. 2018/116), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(c)(iii)