16-01-2013, 11:13 AM
CODES, STANDARDS AND GUIDES TO BE PREPARED BY THE REGULATORY BODY FOR NUCLEAR AND RADIATION FACILITIES
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INTRODUCTION
Radiation safety of the public and of occupational workers during development,
control and use of Atomic Energy for peaceful purposes is being ensured through
the enforcement of safety provisions in the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the
rules framed thereunder. However, with a view to providing compact and cogent
regulatory documents spelling out the obligations of the Consentee and the
responsibilities of the Regulatory Body, a comprehensive safety code on
"Regulation of Nuclear and Radiation Facilities" (AERB/SC/G) has been prepared.
This code details a number of regulatory requirements to be complied with by
the Applicant / Consentee as well as by the Regulatory Body itself.
Objectives
This Guide indicates various documents like Safety Codes, Standards and Guides
to be prepared by the Regulatory Body, along with the format structure to be
adopted while preparing these documents.
Scope
This Guide confines itself only to Safety Codes, Standards and Guides and
identifies those to be issued by the Regulatory Body in respect of various
activities in each of the following nuclear and radiation facilities and associated
activities. Identification of Safety Practices and Manuals is beyond the scope
of this guide and therefore, not covered in this document.
Technical Reports, Bulletins and Directives
The Regulatory Body may also publish documents, such as "Technical Reports
and Bulletins". These may contain information on wide ranging topics of safety
significance in one or more application areas of regulatory concern.
In addition to the above documents, the Regulatory Body may also issue
"Directives" in various subjects like radiation limits for occupational workers,
frequency for annual medical check-up of radiation workers from time to time
bringing out the latest mandatory requirements based on national and
international practices.
SAFETY CODES AND STANDARDS
Codes and Standards for nuclear facilities should be specific to various stages
or aspects of activities related to nuclear facilities listed under 1.3.1. The various
stages may consist of siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation
and decommissioning.
Codes and Standards for radiation facilities should cover a wide spectrum of
radiation sources, equipment and major installations. Radiation sources may
range from small quantities of sealed radioactive materials to large radiation
sources like high intensity gamma irradiators, high energy particle accelerators
used in radiation processing industry or in research areas. Radiation sources
such as teletherapy units, accelerators, brachytherapy units, nuclear medicine
sources are widely used in hospitals. Sources such as radiography devices,
gauging devices and X-ray and gamma ray sources are used in industry for
radiography, process control etc. High intensity gamma irradiators are used for
food irradiation, sterilisation of medical products, polymerisation, vulcanisation
etc.. In view of the wide variety of sources and their utility as well as the diversity
of their applications, the safety requirements have to be specified for each of the
sources and equipment separately to meet their specific operational scenarios.
Surveillance Procedures
Rule 15 of Radiation Protection Rules, 1971 provides for issue of surveillance
procedures appropriate to the radiation source and for the Applicant/ Consentee
to comply with the same. This Rule also stipulates that these procedures may
provide that radiation installation shall be planned, and approved by the
Competent Authority. The working conditions shall be approved prior to routine
operation such as, personnel monitoring of workers, medical examination of
radiation workers, maintenance of records of individual doses, inventory of
sources.