Part 2Interpretation

Part 2—Interpretation 3—Interpretation (1) In these regulations— absorbed dose, of ionising radiation, means a fundamental dose quantity representing the mean energy imparted to matter by ionising radiation in a volume element and per unit mass of matter in that volume element; accredited exercise physiologist means a person who holds an accreditation as an exercise physiologist with Exercise and Sports Science Australia; Act means the Radiation Protection and Control Act 2021; activity, of a radionuclide, means the quantity of that radionuclide in a given energy state at a given time, defined as the number of spontaneous nuclear transformations from the given energy state per second; annual effective dose—see regulation 4; approved means approved by the Minister; ARPANSA means the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency of the Commonwealth; bore hole logging means the use of an ionising radiation apparatus or a sealed radioactive source to investigate the physical properties of a geological sequence, fluids contained in a geology sequence or the properties of a bore hole, by lowering the apparatus or source and a detector down a bore hole that has been drilled through the strata being investigated; bore hole logging tool means a device containing an ionising radiation apparatus or sealed radioactive source that is designed and constructed to be lowered and raised during bore hole logging; Code of Practice for the Security of Radioactive Sources means the Code of Practice for the Security of Radioactive Sources (2019) published by ARPANSA as in force from time to time; cumulative means the sum of all the results obtained for a parameter since the beginning of the relevant year; disposal, in relation to a radioactive substance, does not include sale; dose of ionising radiation means absorbed dose, effective dose or equivalent dose; dose constraint, in relation to an individual dose of ionising radiation from a radiation source, means a prospective and source‑related restriction on the individual dose which provides a basic level of protection for the most highly exposed individuals from that source, and serves as an upper bound on the dose in optimisation of protection for that source; effective dose means the sum of equivalent doses of ionising radiation for all tissues and organs of the body determined by adding together each equivalent dose for a tissue or organ after it has been multiplied by the tissue weighting factor appropriate to that type of tissue or organ; emergency exposure situation means a situation of exposure to ionising radiation that arises as a result of an accident or other undesirable event and that requires prompt protective action in order to avoid or reduce adverse consequences; employer means a person who carries on a business or activity in the course of which persons who are employed or engaged to work for the person (including as independent contractors) are exposed to ionising radiation; equivalent dose means the absorbed dose delivered by a type of ionising radiation averaged over a tissue or organ multiplied by the radiation weighting factor for that ionising radiation type; excepted package has the same meaning as in the Transport Code; exempt activity, in relation to a radionuclide, means— (a) in relation to a radionuclide contained within a naturally occurring radioactive material—means the activity specified in Table I.3 of the IAEA General Safety Requirements for the radionuclide; or (b) in any other case—means the activity specified in Table I.1 of the IAEA General Safety Requirements for the radionuclide; existing exposure situation means a situation of exposure to ionising radiation that already exists when a decision on control needs to be taken, and includes a situation of prolonged exposure after an emergency; external radiation, in relation to the exposure of a natural person to ionising radiation, means ionising radiation that is not internal radiation; fail safe, in relation to a warning device or interlock, means that the failure of the device or interlock results in the inability to produce useable ionising radiation from the apparatus or sealed radioactive source to which the device or interlock is connected; fixed apparatus means any ionising radiation apparatus that is neither a mobile apparatus nor a portable apparatus; fully protected enclosure, in relation to industrial radiography, means an enclosure on or in respect of which— (a) all doors and other openings into the enclosure are interlocked with either the apparatus or the source control mechanism so that the apparatus is de‑energised or the source is returned to the shielded ("off") position whenever a door or other opening is opened; and (b) a warning device inside the enclosure sounds continuously for at least 5 seconds when an exposure commences; and (c) a red warning light marked "Radiation On" that remains on throughout an exposure, is readily visible from all normal routes of access; and (d) the warning lights are fail safe; and (e) the equivalent dose rate at a distance of 50 mm from any readily accessible point on the surface of the enclosure never exceeds 25 µSv/h; and (f) a door can be readily opened from inside the enclosure; gaseous tritium light source means a sealed glass container filled with gaseous tritium and coated internally with a phosphor; IAEA General Safety Requirements means the Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources : International Basic Safety Standards 2014: General Safety Requirements Part 3 (ISBN 978–92–0–135310–8) published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, as in force from time to time; industrial radiography means the use of X‑rays, gamma rays or neutrons to obtain information non‑destructively on the internal state of objects and materials; internal radiation, in relation to the exposure of a person to ionising radiation, means ionising radiation from a radioactive substance located within the person's body; ionisation chamber smoke detector means a device containing a radioactive substance that is designed and constructed to detect the presence of smoke or other combustion product aerosols; low toxicity alpha emitter means— (a) natural uranium, depleted uranium, natural thorium, uranium-235, uranium-238, thorium-232, thorium-228 or thorium-230, when contained in ore or a physical and chemical concentrate; or (b) alpha emitters with a half-life of less than 10 days; member of the public means a person who is not a worker; mobile apparatus means ionising radiation apparatus that is designed and constructed so as to be moveable from place to place for use as required but does not include a portable apparatus; National Directory has the same meaning as in section 78 of the Act; naturally occurring radioactive material means material containing radionuclides that are of natural origin only; occupational exposure means exposure to ionising radiation directly arising out of, or in the course of, employment; optimisation, in relation to the optimisation of radiation protection and safety, means the process of determining what level of protection and safety makes exposures to ionising radiation (and the probability and magnitude of potential exposures) as low as is reasonably achievable, having regard to economic and societal factors; packaged has the same meaning as in the Transport Code; petroleum has the same meaning as in the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000; plain radiography means the technique for obtaining, recording and processing directly or after transfer, static information contained in an X‑ray image at an image receptor where the X‑ray tube is stationary throughout the exposure; planned exposure situation, in relation to exposure to ionising radiation, means a situation involving the deliberate introduction and operation of radiation sources that may give rise to both exposures that are anticipated to occur (normal exposures) and to exposures that are not anticipated to occur (potential exposures); plant includes— (a) any appliance, container, equipment, implement, machinery or tool; and (b) any component of a thing referred to in paragraph (a); and (c) anything that is fitted to or connected with any thing referred to in paragraph (a); portable apparatus means any ionising radiation apparatus that is designed to be carried manually from place to place for use as required; practice means any type of human activity in which persons may be exposed to ionising radiation; prescribed low risk radioactive material means a radioactive material where— (a) the amount of a radioactive element or compound contained in the material exceeds the prescribed concentration as determined under regulation 8(1)(a) but the activity of the radioactive element or compound does not exceed the prescribed amount as determined under regulation 8(2); or (b) the activity of a radioactive element or compound contained in the material exceeds the prescribed amount as determined under regulation 8(2) but the amount of the radioactive element or compound contained in the material does not exceed the prescribed concentration as determined under regulation 8(1)(a); radiation gauge means a device containing a radiation source designed to measure a parameter associated with the item or material of interest, but does not include a device that does not need to be permanently fixed in place to be used; radiation incident means any unintended occurrence involving a radiation source which results in, or has the potential to result in, an exposure to ionising radiation to any person or the environment that is outside the range of that normally expected for a particular practice, and includes an occurrence resulting from operator error, equipment failure or the failure of management systems that warranted investigation; radiation management plan means a radiation management plan submitted under section 34 of the Act; radiation symbol means the radiation symbol described and shown in Schedule 1; registered premises means premises in which an unsealed radioactive material is handled or kept and which are registered under the Act in the name of the occupier of the premises; registrable device means a device or instrument that contains a sealed radioactive source which is required to be registered under section 26 of the Act; relevant code—see Schedule 2; sell means— (a) sell; or (b) supply by way of barter, exchange or gift; or (c) let on hire; or (d) bail; or (e) authorise, direct, cause, suffer or permit any of the acts referred to in a preceding paragraph; source container means an enclosure for a sealed radioactive source that provides, by shielding and by distance, protection against radiation emitted by the source; source holder, in relation to bore hole logging, means the component of a bore hole logging tool that— (a) houses the sealed radioactive source to protect it from damage; and (b) fits into the source container when the source is not being used; and (c) fits onto the bore hole logging tool when the source is being used; source of ionising radiation means an ionising radiation apparatus or a radioactive material; Transport Code means the code entitled Code for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, Radiation Protection Series C-2 (Rev.1), published by ARPANSA in 2019, as modified by Schedule 6; type, in relation to premises in which an unsealed radioactive material is kept or handled, means the type of premises established by the classification scheme set out in Code of Compliance for Facility Design and Shielding 2022 published by the Department, as in force from time to time; veterinary surgeon means a person registered on the general register or on both the general register and the specialist register under the Veterinary Practice Act 2003; worker means a person who is exposed to ionising radiation in the ordinary course of the person's work; X‑ray analysis apparatus means an ionising radiation apparatus that is used to analyse the properties or composition of materials by the techniques of X‑ray fluorescence or X‑ray diffraction; X‑ray tube, in relation to an ionising radiation apparatus, means an evacuated envelope in which electrons are accelerated for the purposes of the production of ionising radiation. (2) In these regulations, a reference to a worker being employed by an employer is to be taken to include the acceptance of a person as— (a) a voluntary worker; or (b) a student, and the person who accepts a person as a voluntary worker or student will, for the purposes of these regulations, be taken to be an employer in relation to that person. (3) If a person who is an employer engages an independent contractor to carry out work in the course of which a person will be exposed to ionising radiation, that person is, for the purposes of these regulations, to be taken to be the employer in relation to— (a) that independent contractor; and (b) any person employed by that independent contractor to do work that the independent contractor has been engaged to carry out. (4) In these regulations, a requirement on an employer to do or provide any matter or thing for or in relation to a worker employed by the employer is, in relation to an employer who is a worker, to be taken to require that the person must do or provide for themself any matter or thing that an employer would be required to provide for or in relation to a worker employed by the employer. 4—Annual effective dose (1) In these regulations— annual effective dose means the sum of— (a) the effective dose received from external radiation during a calendar year; and (b) the committed effective dose received from radionuclides taken into the body during that year calculated in the manner set out in this regulation. (2) The committed effective dose received from radionuclides taken into the body must be calculated using the methods recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection for those radionuclides. (3) If— (a) the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends or adopts more than 1 value for an item of data; and (b) the information required so as to choose which of those values is relevant to the circumstances of the case has not been obtained by the employer, the value that gives rise to the largest value of committed equivalent dose must be used in the calculation. (4) In this regulation— committed effective dose means the effective dose of ionising radiation that a person is committed to receive from an intake of radioactive material; committed equivalent dose means the equivalent dose of ionising radiation that an organ or tissue is committed to receive from an intake of radioactive material. 5—Corresponding laws For the purposes of the definition of corresponding law in section 3(1) of the Act, each of the following laws is declared to be a corresponding law: (a) Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 of the Commonwealth; (b) Mining Management Act 2001 of the Northern Territory; (c) Radiation Act 2005 of Victoria; (d) Radiation Control Act 1990 of New South Wales; (e) Radiation Protection Act 2004 of the Northern Territory; (f) Radiation Protection Act 2005 of Tasmania; (g) Radiation Protection Act 2006 of the Australian Capital Territory; (h) Radiation Safety Act 1975 of Western Australia; (i) Radiation Safety Act 1999 of Queensland. 6—Mineral processing For the purposes of the definition of mineral processing in section 3(1) of the Act, operations for the processing of petroleum are within the ambit of that definition. 7—Radiation facility (1) For the purposes of the definition of radiation facility in section 3(1) of the Act, the following facilities are prescribed: (a) a particle accelerator that— (i) has, or is capable of having, a beam energy greater than 1 MeV; or (ii) can produce neutrons; (b) an irradiator that contains more than 1015 Bq of a radioactive material; (c) an irradiator that— (ii) does not include shielding as an integral part of its construction; (d) an irradiator that— (ii) includes, as an integral part of its construction, shielding that does not prevent a person from being exposed to the source; (e) an irradiator that— (ii) includes shielding as an integral part of its construction; and (iii) has a source that is not inside that shielding during the operation of the irradiator; (f) a facility used for the production, processing, use, storage, management or disposal of— (i) sealed sources of radioactive materials of activity greater than 109 times the exempt activity; or (ii) unsealed sources of radioactive materials of activity greater than 106 times the exempt activity; (g) a facility where— (i) a mixture of radioactive materials is produced, used, stored, managed or disposed of using the facility; and (ii) the activity of the mixture is greater than the applicable level; (h) a facility where the effective radiation exposure to be incurred by an individual associated with operation of the facility will, in a year, exceed— (i) when taking into account all reasonably foreseeable circumstances—100 μSv; or (ii) when taking into account low probability scenarios (being a scenario where the probability of occurrence of the scenario does not exceed 10-2 per year)—1 mSv in a year. (2) For the purposes of subregulation (1)(g)(ii), the activity of the mixture is greater than the applicable level if, after dividing the activity of each radionuclide in the mixture by the exempt activity for that radionuclide and adding the fractions for each radionuclide, the result is greater than— (a) for a sealed source—109; (b) for an unsealed source—106. (3) Subregulation (1)(f) and (g) do not apply in relation to the storage of packaged radioactive material during the course of its transport. 8—Radioactive material (1) For the purposes of paragraph (a) of the definition of radioactive material in section 3(1) of the Act, subject to this regulation, the amount of a radioactive element or compound contained in a material or substance exceeds the prescribed concentration if— (a) in relation to radioactive material other than naturally occurring radioactive material— (i) it contains 1 of the radionuclides specified in Table I.1 of the IAEA General Safety Requirements and the activity concentration of that radionuclide exceeds the activity concentration specified in that Table for that radionuclide; or (ii) it contains 2 or more of the radionuclides specified in Table I.1 of the IAEA General Safety Requirements and the sum of the activity concentrations of the individual radionuclides when determined in accordance with the following formula is equal to or exceeds 1: