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- +61 2 9541 8348
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About Regulatory and Policy Branch
Our Regulatory Principles
ARPANSA strives to implement best practice regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection.
ARPANSA is guided by the principles of best practice set out in documents such as the Australian National Audit Office Better Practice Guide for Administering Regulation, March 2007 as well as guidance from international regulatory approaches set out in key documents of organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. We are also guided by benchmarking against our domestic and international counterpart regulatory bodies.
An effective regulatory body must consider the issue of regulatory burden, and how to minimise it; regulatory compliance and how to maximise it; risk informed and how to assess it; as well as best practice and how to achieve it.
In addition, when making a licence decision under the ARPANS Act the regulator must “take into account international best practice in radiation protection and nuclear safety”. ARPANSA has implemented this requirement by having regard to international conventions, codes of practice, safety requirements, standards and guides developed by the IAEA as well as actual practice around the world. An example of this may be found in the CEO’s decision and statement of reasons for issuing a licence to operate the OPAL reactor.
An efficient regulatory body must manage its work load, set expected timeframes for decision making and inform applicants and licence holders of the progress of an issue under consideration, including seeking further information or clarification in a timely manner.
In recent times ARPANSA has improved its regulatory approach in the areas of:
- Regulatory management systems, including an increased focus on the challenges of knowledge management and to continuously improve our quality management system;
- Regulatory policy including revised compliance and enforcement policies and procedures;
- Risk informed philosophy that responds to the risk posed by the proposed activities of the applicant and the compliance history of the licence holder.