The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide guidance on the establishment of the national radiation safety infrastructure that meets the IAEA safety standards. It provides recommendations, in the form of actions, on meeting the relevant Safety Requirements in an effective and integrated manner while taking specific national circumstances into full consideration. This Safety Guide does not diminish the application of, or provide a synopsis of or a substitute for, the IAEA Safety Fundamentals and Safety Requirements publications or other associated Safety Guides. Rather it sets out a holistic approach to the establishment of the national radiation safety infrastructure and provides advice for the application of IAEA safety standards for both, States having essentially no elements of the radiation safety infrastructure in place, and those that already have some.

This publication is the new edition of the International Basic Safety Standards. The edition is co-sponsored by seven other international organizations European Commission (EC/Euratom), FAO, ILO, OECD/NEA, PAHO, UNEP and WHO. It replaces the interim edition that was published in November 2011 and the previous edition of the International Basic Safety Standards which was published in 1996. It has been extensively revised and updated to take account of the latest finding of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, and the latest recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The publication details the requirements for the protection of people and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation and for the safety of radiation sources. All circumstances of radiation exposure are considered.

"This Safety Guide provides guidance on the establishment of a national nuclear safety infrastructure as a key component of the overall preparations required for emerging nuclear power programmes. It provides recommendations, presented in the form of 200 sequential actions, on meeting the applicable IAEA safety requirements during the first three phases of the development of a nuclear power programme. It is intended for use by persons or organizations participating in the preparation and implementation of a nuclear power programme, including government officials and legislative bodies, regulatory bodies, operating organizations and external support entities."--Provided by publisher.

This publication identifies the fundamental safety objective and associated safety principles that underpin the IAEA's safety standards and its related safety programme. They provide the basis for requirements and measures for the protection of people and the environment against radiation risks, the safety of facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks, including, in particular, nuclear installations and uses of radiation and radioactive sources, the transport of radioactive material and the management of radioactive waste.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was set up by Congress in 1990 to compensate people who have been diagnosed with specified cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to nuclear-weapons tests at various U.S. test sites. Eligible claimants include civilian onsite participants, downwinders who lived in areas currently designated by RECA, and uranium workers and ore transporters who meet specified residence or exposure criteria. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the screening, education, and referral services program for RECA populations, asked the National Academies to review its program and assess whether new scientific information could be used to improve its program and determine if additional populations or geographic areas should be covered under RECA. The report recommends Congress should establish a new science-based process using a method called "probability of causation/assigned share" (PC/AS) to determine eligibility for compensation. Because fallout may have been higher for people outside RECA-designated areas, the new PC/AS process should apply to all residents of the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and overseas US territories who have been diagnosed with specific RECA-compensable diseases and who may have been exposed, even in utero, to radiation from U.S. nuclear-weapons testing fallout. However, because the risks of radiation-induced disease are generally low at the exposure levels of concern in RECA populations, in most cases it is unlikely that exposure to radioactive fallout was a substantial contributing cause of cancer.

This handbook is a practical aid to legislative drafting that brings together, for the first time, model texts of provisions covering all aspects of nuclear law in a consolidated form. Organized along the same lines as the Handbook on Nuclear Law, published by the IAEA in 2003, and containing updated material on new legal developments, this publication represents an important companion resource for the development of new or revised nuclear legislation, as well as for instruction in the fundamentals of nuclear law. It will be particularly useful for those Member States embarking on new or expanding existing nuclear programmes.