Law and Regulation
Overview
There is a need to establish a proper legal basis for effective regulatory scrutiny and control of the decommissioning programme.
Work is advanced on drafting a new nuclear law, provisionally entitled the Ionising Radiation Control Law, which will provide the legal basis for the licensing of the decommissioning of the former nuclear complex. The law will also provide the legal basis for the regulation of other radiological activities allowed under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 707, i.e. the use of radioactivity for medical, agricultural or industrial purposes.
The new nuclear law will be aligned with a new law addressing the prohibition of Weapons of Mass Destruction which will assure the peaceful uses of nuclear technology (as well as covering chemical and biological technologies).
A set of supporting Regulations is also being drafted covering detailed requirements for Protection against Ionising Radiation and the Use of Radiation Sources, Decommissioning, Waste Management, Transport of Radioactive Materials and Security of Radioactive Material.
This overall set of Laws and Regulations will replace all the relevant legislation currently in existence within Iraq.
The new law provides for the establishment of a new regulatory body, provisionally called the Ionising Radiation Control Authority (IRCA). Many (or all) of the roles of the current regulatory bodies in Iraq relating to ionising radiation, i.e. the Iraq Radioactive Sources Regulatory Authority (IRSRA) and the Ministry of Environment’s Radiation Protection Centre (RPC), are expected to be subsumed into this new regulatory authority. Details of this transition are currently under discussion.
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