1A management system is defined as a “set of interrelated or interacting elements (system) for establishing policies and objectives and enabling the objectives to be achieved in an efficient and effective manner” [1].

2Radioactive waste management comprises all “administrative and operational activities involved in the handling, pretreatment, treatment, conditioning, transport, storage and disposal of radioactive waste” [1].

3INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, The Management System for the Processing, Handling and Storage of Radioactive Waste, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-G-3.3, IAEA, Vienna (2008).

4INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, The Management System for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-G-3.4, IAEA, Vienna (2008).

5In this Safety Guide, the term ‘waste’ refers to radioactive waste unless otherwise stated.

6The supply chain, described as ‘suppliers’, typically includes designers, vendors, manufacturers and constructors, employers, contractors, subcontractors, and consigners and carriers who supply safety related items. The supply chain can also include other parts of the organization and parent organizations [5].

7‘Best’ as used here means the most effective in achieving a high general level of protection of people and the environment as a whole; further guidance on the meaning of best is included in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSG-9, Regulatory Control of Radioactive Discharges to the Environment [13].

8Waste package specifications comprise defined characteristics and properties of waste packages to provide for their acceptance at subsequent radioactive waste management facilities.

9In a radioactive waste management programme, a group of related waste management projects is managed in a coordinated way and with a particular long term aim in order to obtain benefits and control not available from managing the projects individually.

10Senior management is defined as “The person or persons who direct, control and assess an organization at the highest level” [1].

11The operating organization is defined as “Any organization or person applying for authorization or authorized to operate an authorized facility or to conduct an authorized activity and responsible for its safety….This includes, inter alia, private individuals, governmental bodies, consignors or carriers, licensees, hospitals and self-employed persons” [1]. Operating organization is synonymous with ‘operator’. The licensee is defined as “The holder of a current licence. The licensee is the person or organization having overall responsibility for a facility or activity” [1]. The operating organization might not be the holder of the licence (e.g. the operator could be a supply chain organization). In practice, for an authorized facility, the operating organization is normally also the registrant or licensee. However, the separate terms are retained to refer to the two different capacities [1].

12Senior management may perform some or all of these roles themselves (e.g. in small organizations).

13Extended periods of time may apply in cases such as a long-standing industrial operation that generates radioactive waste, the operating and decommissioning periods in the lifetime of a nuclear power plant, the storage of waste awaiting disposal, the disposal of the waste and institutional control during the post-closure period of a disposal facility.

14Requirements for the protection of workers, including the establishment of a radiation protection programme are established in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3, Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards [35].

15For example, monitoring of environmental conditions in the facility, monitoring of the condition and integrity of waste packages, monitoring of equipment, monitoring of occupational exposures, managing and responding to monitoring data, communicating with interested parties on the monitoring programme and the results obtained.