ARPANSA - Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency

The Australian Health Ministers' Conference (AHMC) endorsed Edition 1 of the National Directory for Radiation Protection (NDRP) as the uniform national framework for radiation protection in Australia.

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RPS No. 6 - National Directory for Radiation Protection (NDRP) Edition 1.0 (PDF 818k)

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Background

In August 1999, AHMC endorsed the development of the NDRP as the means of achieving uniformity in radiation protection practices between Australian jurisdictions. The Radiation Health Committee (RHC) prepared the NDRP for approval by AHMC via a process for issues resolution that included meeting the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) requirements for national standard setting. Members of the RHC include representatives from all States and Territories and the Commonwealth.

Ministers recognised that a variety of agencies such as mines, occupational health and safety and transport agencies have a legislated responsibility for aspects of radiation safety in many jurisdictions and, as such, these other agencies would need to be actively involved in measures to progress national uniformity, including the development of the NDRP. The development of the NDRP was also supported by the recommendations of the National Competition Policy (NCP) Review of Radiation Protection Legislation (May 2001), which was endorsed by all participating jurisdictions. Queensland did not participate in the NCP Review, but endorsed the recommendations relating to uniformity.

Purpose

The purpose of the NDRP is therefore to provide nationally uniform and agreed:

• requirements for the protection of people and the environment against exposure or potential exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation; and
• requirements for the safety of radiation sources, including provision for the national adoption of codes and standards.
• clear regulatory statements for adoption by the Commonwealth, States and Territories into their legislation.

AHMC agreed that upon consideration and approval of the provisions of the NDRP, the regulatory elements of the NDRP would be adopted in each jurisdiction as soon as possible, using existing Commonwealth/State/Territory regulatory frameworks.

Process

The NDRP was developed to address the needs of radiation protection regulators but it will also benefit other sectors involved in implementing radiation controls, such as mining and occupational health and safety regulators.

The development of the NDRP involved full consultation with stakeholders including:

• As part of the focussed consultation within the NCP Review in March 2001;
• Government consultation within each of the jurisdictions in February 2002;
• The release of a discussion draft for public consultation from December 2002 to January 2003; and
• The preparation of a Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) (PDF 458k) and a further period of public comment on both the RIS and the consultation draft (PDF 839k). This second public comment period took place from March to April 2004.

As AHMC had already made a decision to develop the NDRP, the RIS analysed the impact of provisions of the NDRP and not other regulatory options.

As the Directory will be completed in stages, some sections of Edition 1 do not contain details of radiation protection requirements or guidelines. Where this is the case, a short commentary has been provided on what can be expected in future editions of the Directory.

Following the consideration of public comment and preparation of a revised version, the RHC approved the draft NDRP out-of-session on 20 May 2004. The draft NDRP was submitted to  Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC) on 10 June and subsequently to AHMC for approval at its 29 July 2004 meeting. At the meeting, AHMC endorsed this version of the NDRP as the uniform national framework for radiation protection in Australia. Ministers noted that further cost-benefit analysis is being undertaken sufficient to meet the statutory requirements in each jurisdiction, and that Edition 1 will not apply to mining and mineral processing industries. Mining and mineral processing has been omitted from Edition 1 pending further consultation with the industry, completion of the Code of Practice on mining and mineral processing, development of a process for consideration of exemptions and specification of incident reporting requirements in the industry.

The additional cost-benefit analysis (PDF 289k) was undertaken and a  Final Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 462k) completed in January 2005 after officers in all jurisdictions confirmed that the analysis met their legislative requirements. AHMAC confirmed in June 2005 that the updated RIS and cost-benefit analysis meet their earlier requirement and agreed to advise Ministers that implementation of the Directory should proceed in all jurisdictions. In December 2005 Ministers confirmed out of session that the cost-benefit analysis met requirements and implementation of the Directory should proceed.

Structure of the NDRP

• PART A - sets out the agreed principles and overall framework for radiation protection in Australia. It is expected that jurisdictions will adopt these principles as reviews of legislation come forward.
• PART B - contains the uniform regulatory elements, which are to be adopted by each jurisdiction, within its particular regulatory framework.
• PART C - contains guidance that will assist regulators in adopting consistent approaches, but is not regulatory in nature.

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