1Declarations of Associated Equipment under subsection 4(1) of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (Safeguards) Act 1987 (March 1987)

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Nuclear Non-Proliferation (Safeguards) Act 1987

PURSUANT to sub-section 4 (1) of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (Safeguards) Act 1987, I, GARETH EVANS, Minister for Resources and Energy, hereby declare that:

1. The classes of equipment and plant which are ‘associated equipment’ for the purposes of that definition are:

(a) Nuclear reactors:

Nuclear reactors capable of operation so as to maintain a controlled self-sustaining fission chain reaction, excluding zero energy reactors, the latter being defined as reactors with a designed maximum rate of production of plutonium not exceeding 100 grams per year, but reactors which could reasonably be capable of modification to produce significantly more than 100 grams of plutonium per year shall be not excluded. Reactors designed for sustained operation at significant power levels, regardless of their capacity for plutonium production, are not considered as ‘zero energy reactors’.

A ‘nuclear reactor’ includes the items within or attached directly to the reactor vessel, the equipment which controls the level of power in the core, and the components which normally contain or come into direct contact with or control the primary coolant of the reactor core.

(b) Nuclear reactor pressure vessels:

Metal vessels, as complete units or major shop-fabricated parts therefor, which are especially designed or prepared to contain the core of a nuclear reactor as defined in 1 (a) above and are capable of withstanding the operating pressure of the primary coolant.

A top plate for a nuclear reactor pressure vessel is a major shop-fabricated part of a pressure vessel.

(c) Nuclear reactor internals:

Including, but not limited to, support columns and plates for the core and other vessel internals, control rod guide tubes, thermal shields, baffles, core grid plates, diffuser plates.

(d) Nuclear reactor fuel charging and discharging machines:

Manipulative equipment especially designed or prepared for inserting or removing fuel in nuclear reactors as defined in 1 (a) above capable of onload operation or employing technically sophisticated positioning or alignment features to allow complex off-load fuelling operations including those in which direct viewing of or access to the fuel is not normally available.

(e) Nuclear rector control rods:

Rods especially designed or prepared for the control of the reaction rate in a nuclear reactor as defined in 1 (a) above.

This item includes, in addition to the neutron absorbing part, the support or suspension structures therefor if supplied separately.

(f) Nuclear pressure tubes: