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Glossary

Please find below technical words/terms and their definitions in alphabetical order.


A

  • Activity Noun

    Includes—
    (a) the design, manufacture, construction, import, export, distribution, sale, loan, commissioning, use, operation, maintenance, repair, transfer, decommissioning or possession of radiation sources for industrial, education, research, agriculture and medical purposes;
    (b) the transport of radioactive material and nuclear material;
    (c) the mining and processing of radioactive ores;
    (d) the closing down of associated facilities;
    (e) the cleanup of sites affected by residues from past activities;
    (f) the development, production and use of nuclear energy;
    (g) radioactive waste management activities, including the discharge of effluents;
    (h) an activity involving a nuclear material as defined in the Safeguards Agreement; and
    (i) an activity involving a nuclear material in a nuclear installation;

  • Authorization Noun

    includes the granting by a regulatory body or other governmental body of written permission for an operator to perform specified activities licensing, certification or registration;

  • Authorized Person Noun

    means a person who has been granted authorisation;

  • Authority Noun

    means the Nuclear Regulatory Authority established under section 3;

E

  • Exclusion Noun

    means the exemption of a particular category of exposure from the scope of this Act on the grounds that it is not considered amenable to control;

  • Exemption Noun

    means a determination by the Authority that a source or practice or some aspects of the source or practice need not be subjected to regulatory control on the basis that the exposure, including potential exposure, due to the source or practice is too small to warrant the application of those aspects;

  • Export Verb

    means the physical transfer of nuclear material and related equipment, information and technology determined by the Authority as originating from the country, into an importing State;

F

  • Facility Noun

    includes nuclear facilities, irradiation installations, mining and raw material processing facilities such as uranium mines, radioactive waste management facilities and other places where radioactive material is produced, processed, used, handled, stored or disposed of or where radiation generators are installed on a scale that consideration of protection of safety is required;

I

  • Import Verb

    means the physical transfer, into the country, originating from an exporting State, of nuclear material and related equipment, information and technology, as defined by the Authority;

  • Ionizing radiation Noun

    means, for the purposes of radiation protection, radiation capable of producing ion pairs in biological materials;

N

  • Notification Noun

    means a document submitted to the Authority by a person to express the intention of that person to carry out an activity or a practice;

  • Nuclear energy Noun

    means energy released in nuclear fission or fusion;

  • Nuclear Incident Noun

    means any occurrence or series of occurrences having the same origin which—
    (a) causes nuclear damage, but with respect to preventive measures only; or
    (b) creates a grave and imminent threat of causing that damage;

  • Nuclear Installation Noun

    means—
    (a) nuclear power plant, enrichment plant or reprocessing facility;
    (b) any nuclear reactor other than one with which a means of sea or air transport is equipped for use as a source of power, whether for its propulsion or for any other purpose;
    (c) any factory using nuclear fuel for the production of nuclear material, or any factory that processes nuclear material, including any factory for the re-processing of irradiated nuclear fuel; and
    (d) any facility where nuclear material is stored, other than storage incidental to the carriage of the material;

  • Nuclear material Noun

    means—
    (a) nuclear fuel, other than natural uranium capable of producing energy by a self-sustaining chain process of nuclear fission outside a nuclear reactor, either alone or in combination with some other material; and
    (b) radioactive products or waste;

  • Nuclear reactor Noun

    means a structure containing nuclear fuel arranged in a manner to create a controlled self-sustaining chain process of nuclear fission;

O

  • Operator Noun

    means the person legally recognised as responsible for the operation of a nuclear installation or the person designated by the legally recognised operator;

P

  • Peaceful use Noun

    means any use of a nuclear material, radioactive material, nuclear technology or radioactive technology, other than for a military purpose;

  • Practice Noun

    means any human activity that introduces additional sources of exposure or exposure pathways or extends exposure to additional people or modifies the network of exposure pathways from existing sources, so as to increase the exposure or the likelihood of exposure of people or the number of people exposed;

R

  • Radiation Noun

    means anything that is capable of emitting ionizing or non-ionising radiation or releasing radioactive substances or materials;

  • Radioactive material Noun

    means—
    (a) anything containing radio nuclides that may cause radiation exposure; or
    (b) a naturally occurring radioactive material;

  • Radioactive source Noun

    means radioactive material that is permanently sealed in a capsule or closely bonded, in a solid form and which is not exempt from regulatory control and includes any radioactive material released through the breakage or leaking of the source, but does not include nuclear material or material encapsulated for disposal;

  • Radioactive waste Noun

    means material, in whatever physical form, remaining from practices or interventions and for which further use is not foreseen—
    (a) that contains or is contaminated with radioactive substances and has an activity or activity concentration higher than the level set for clearance from regulatory requirements, and
    (b) exposure to which is not excluded from this Act or Regulations;

S

  • Sealed source Noun

    means radioactive material that is—
    (a) permanently sealed in a capsule; or
    (b) closely bounded and in a solid form;

  • Security Noun

    means measures to prevent sabotage, unauthorised access or damage to, loss, theft or unauthorised transfer of radioactive sources or nuclear material, or malicious acts with respect to radioactive sources or nuclear material;