Abu Dhabi: The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) yesterday (Sunday) released a draft nuclear safety regulation and invited the public to review the draft and comment.
“Basic Safety Standards for Facilities and Activities involving Ionising Radiation other than in Nuclear Facilities” (FANR-REG-24 - Version 1) sets the requirements for producing, possessing, using or disposing of radioactive materials in the UAE at all sites except nuclear facilities, such as those where large quantities of nuclear material are used. Affected facilities include hospitals, universities, research centres, oil and gas sites, and a variety of other industrial locations. Different regulations apply to the UAE’s nuclear power plant now under construction at Barakah in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi emirate
The draft regulation revises the existing FANR-REG-24 to align it more closely with Basic Safety Standards established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). An IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service mission report made some related suggestions and recommendations in 2011.
The draft regulation is available on the FANR website www.fanr.gov.ae. Members of the public can send their comments to regulation@fanr.gov.ae for the next 30 days (from August 3 to September 3). FANR’s Safety, Security and Safeguards Glossary can help interested readers understand the specific terminology used in this regulation. FANR will consider all comments before preparing the final regulation.
As with previous regulations and regulatory guides, this draft regulation has already been made available for 30 days to local and federal government entities for their comments.
FANR recognises the importance of the public’s comments and maintains the highest standards of transparency in accordance with Article 9 of the Federal Law by Decree No 6 of 2009, concerning the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Since FANR’s establishment on September 24, 2009, the nuclear regulator has asked its stakeholders to review and comment on various regulations and regulatory guides through either web-based or face-to-face communication.
