The Code of Practice for Sealed Radioactive Material: ORS C12 2020 (ORS C12 2020) is currently in force. The code of practice came into force on 31 July 2020 and was issued under section 86 of the Radiation Safety Act 2016 (the Act).
ORS C12 2020 supersedes two codes of safe practice (CSP 15 and CSP 19) that dealt separately with fixed industrial gauges and portable nuclear gauges (nuclear density meters). ORS C12 2020 fully consolidates the previous two codes. Specific requirements for each type of equipment and training are set out as appendices in ORS C12 2020.
In 2025, ORS C12 2020 was reviewed under section 90 of the Act. The review findings and proposed next steps can be found at Consultation on the Code of Practice for Sealed Radioactive Material: ORS C12 2020.
Scope of ORS C12 2020
ORS C12 2020 sets out the technical requirements that a person must comply with in order to comply with the fundamental requirements set out in sections 9 to 12 of the Act.
The code of practice applies to any person who deals with sealed radioactive material that is within the scope of the code of practice. The scope of ORS C12 2020 is set out in the code of practice. To ‘deal with’ sealed radioactive material that is within the scope of ORS C12 2020 means to: manufacture, possess, control, manage, use, store, export, import, sell, supply, or dispose of sealed radioactive material, or to carry out any other activity or practice involving sealed radioactive material.
The code of practice also applies to the disposal of equipment that has housed or contained sealed radioactive material.
ORS C12 2020 has a general application that includes radiation practices involving sealed radioactive material that are not explicitly included in the scopes of other codes of practice.
The scope of ORS C12 2020 includes radiation practices involving nuclear gauges (fixed and portable) and logging tools. Nuclear gauges can be used for purposes such as level indication and in density, concentration and thickness measurement. Logging tools are used for well logging. The radiation practices occur in industry, research and education.
Publishing information
- Publication date
- Citation
Ministry of Health. 2020. Code of Practice for Sealed Radioactive Material. Wellington: Ministry of Health.
- ISBN
- 978-1-99-002907-3 (online)
- HP number
- 7422
- Copyright status
-
Owned by the Ministry of Health and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
