Why are we publishing this code?
The Radiation Safety Act 2016 (the Act) came fully into force on 7 March 2017. The Act is administered by the Ministry of Health’s Office of Radiation Safety.
The Act sets out high-level safety and security obligations in sections 9–12. There are many different types of radiation use and the requirements are often very technical. The Act therefore authorises the issuing of codes of practice to set out more detailed requirements relating to individual areas of practice. This code relates to the security of radioactive material. It intends to provide operational details on how to comply with the security requirements set out in sections 11 and 12 of the Act.
This code applies to the security of radioactive material, associated facilities and associated activities for the prevention of malicious acts intended or likely to cause harmful radiological consequences throughout the lifetime of the radioactive material whether it is in use, storage or transport.
This code comes into force on 1 May 2021.
Who is affected by this code?
Intended audience includes anyone who possesses, produces, uses, stores, handles or disposes of radioactive material throughout the lifetime of radioactive material such as the following, but not limited to:
- health service providers who use radioactive material for diagnosis or therapy purposes including radiology, nuclear medicine therapy, diagnostic imaging or other medical purposes
- suppliers who store or transport radioactive material
- industrial organisations who use radioactive material for radiography, industrial processing or waste conditioning
- research organisations
- veterinary practices who use radioactive material for diagnosis and therapy.
Public Consultation
In July 2019, ORS conducted a targeted consultation on the possible wording of this code of practice. Six organisations made submissions in total and they all agreed with the scope of the code. Most of the submissions suggested refining the proposed wording for clarity and better legibility. The final code has adopted these suggestions.