Workplace Radiation In Australia

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Pages: 7

Over the years there have been concerns about the effects of workplace radiation on the health and safety of workers. As a result in Australia, as in most developed countries, legislation and regulation has been developed to provide structure and guidelines for the control of radioactive substances, radioactive sources and radiation apparatus. These Acts include procedures to prevent or limit the hazards associated with radiation for the occupational users and the general public. The regulations place requirements on the owners and users of the radioactive sources to be licensed. The licence conditions might include that the radiation sources are secure and that the users have had appropriate and adequate training (Martin et al. 2012).

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The national radiation protection standards based on ICRP recommendations were taken up in the radiation protection legislation of the States and Territories under various Acts and their respective Regulations. There are 9 Australian State and Territory Regulatory Authorities (1 Commonwealth & 8 State/Territory). The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has the lead role in respect to radiation. As the Federal regulator it provides a framework for radiation safety together with clear regulatory statements to be adopted by the Commonwealth, States and Territories (ARPNSA 2015b). The relevant Procedures, Standards, Codes of Practice, Recommendations and Safety Guides, are published by ARPANSA and their adoption by organisations brings 'best practice' the management of ionising and non-ionising radiation in the workplace. All these are further complemented by the role of Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO) which considers security …show more content…
The DST Group Radiation Safety Management Plan (RSMP) is the corporate level RADSAFE system document which acknowledges the Defence policy commitment and establishes the framework for the safe management of all forms of harmful radiation within DST Group. The DST Group RSMP allows DST Group to integrate the requirements of the DRSMS and Defence Radiation Safety Manual (DRSM) within DST Group. As such the DST Group RSMP guides other documents that sit at a lower level such as Plans and Safety Instructions e.g. DST Group WHS 057 Radiation Safety Plan and DST Group WHS 001 Laser Inventory