1States have different legislative structures, and therefore the term ‘government’ as used in the IAEA safety standards is to be understood in a broad sense, and is accordingly interchangeable here with the term ‘State’.

2For the purposes of this Safety Guide, ‘safety’ means the protection of people and the environment against radiation risks and the safety of facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks. The term safety here refers to radiation safety, including safety of radioactive waste management and safety of transport of radioactive material, but it does not include aspects relating to the safety of nuclear installations.

3For States considering and preparing to embark on a nuclear power programme, guidance on the establishment of a framework for safety in accordance with the IAEA safety standards is provided in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-16, Establishing the Safety Infrastructure for a Nuclear Power Programme [9].

4Nevertheless, actions relating to measurement, assessment and continuous improvement are likely to be applicable to all States.

5The generic term ‘steering group’ is used in this Safety Guide to refer to an entity appointed by the government to collect and analyse relevant information and to provide advice on the establishment of the radiation safety infrastructure. Different names may be used in different States for the steering group. Examples of other names or terms used are ‘committee’ or ‘task force’.

6A graded approach is “…a process or method in which the stringency of the control measures and conditions to be applied is commensurate, to the extent practicable, with the likelihood and possible consequences of, and the level of risk associated with, a loss of control” [8].

7The regulatory body is “[a]n authority or a system of authorities designated by the government of a State as having legal authority for conducting the regulatory process, including issuing authorizations, and thereby regulating the nuclear, radiation, radioactive waste and transport safety” [8].

8As an example, in some States the responsibility for import and export controls is assigned to an inspection agency. The role of the customs authorities, in this case, is limited to the financial issues associated with the import and export of goods after they have been cleared or approved by the inspection agency.

9The IAEA Handbook on Nuclear Law [12] provides detailed advice on the scope and development of the legal framework for safety.

10The terms ‘performance oriented’ and ‘prescriptive’ refer to different approaches in regulation. Performance oriented regulations are more general and simply specify the overall radiation safety requirement and basic operational parameters. Prescriptive regulations are more specific and state how to achieve radiation safety.

11Organizational risk to the regulatory body arises from its inability to discharge its regulatory functions effectively. Some examples of organizational risk are failure to deal with an incident (e.g. loss of a high activity source) in a timely manner; inadequate number of inspectors to undertake compliance monitoring activities leading to degradation in radiation safety; inability to undertake authorization activities in a competent or timely manner resulting in delay or lack of provision of business or health service delivery; lack of technical radiological services to perform radiological analysis or monitoring of authorized parties; or failure to meet budget/funding commitments.

12For instance, the regulatory body may opt to recruit new staff members, to increase the level of competence of existing staff members, or to seek technical or professional support from external advisory bodies.

13The ‘intelligent customer’ concept relates mainly to a capability required of organizations when using external expert support. An intelligent customer capability is the capability of the regulatory body to have a clear understanding and knowledge of the advice or service being supplied (see GSG-4 [16]).

14Actions 60–63 provide examples of possible means to receive experience from other States.

15In the context of transport of radioactive material, the term ‘competent authority’ refers to any body or authority designated or otherwise recognized as such for any purpose in connection with SSR-6 (Rev. 1) [23].