PART I | Short title and commencement |
1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Radiation Protection Act, 1973, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.| (2) The Minister may appoint different dates for the coming into operation of the different provisions of this Act. |
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2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —| “approved” means approved in writing by the Director; |
| “authorised officer” means any authorised officer appointed under section 3; |
| “Committee” means the Radiation Advisory Committee established under section 32; |
| “diagnostic radiologist” means a registered medical practitioner who has received special training and has knowledge in the safe use or application of irradiating apparatus for the purpose of diagnosing any normal or abnormal condition of the human body; |
| “Director” means the Director of Radiation Protection appointed under section 3; |
| “disposal”, in relation to waste, includes the removal, deposit or destruction thereof, and includes the discharge thereof, whether onto land or into water or into air or into a sewer or a drain or otherwise, and also includes the burial thereof, whether underground or otherwise, and “dispose of” shall be construed accordingly; |
| “export”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, in relation to Singapore, means to take or cause to be taken out of Singapore by land, sea or air; |
| “fuel burning equipment” includes a nuclear fuel plant; |
| “import”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, in relation to Singapore, means to bring, or cause to be brought into Singapore by land, sea or air; |
| “in transit” means taken or sent from any country and brought into Singapore by land, sea or air whether or not landed or transhipped in Singapore for the sole purpose of being carried to another country either by the same or by another conveyance; |
| “ionizing radiations” means electro-magnetic radiations and corpuscular radiations which give rise to the formation of ion pairs on interaction with matter; |
| “irradiating apparatus” means any apparatus that can be used for the production of X-rays or gamma rays or for the acceleration of atomic particles in such a way that it produces a dose equivalent rate of or exceeding 0.25 millirem per hour at a point which could be reached by a living human being; |
| “licence” means a valid licence issued under the provisions of this Act; |
| “licensee” means the holder for the time being of a valid licence issued under the provisions of this Act; |
| “premises” includes messuages, houses, buildings and lands, whether open or enclosed, and whether public or private, and includes any place underground and any land covered by water; |
| “radioactive material” means any article containing a radioactive substance giving it a specific radioactivity exceeding 0.002 microcurie per gram and a total radioactivity exceeding 0.1 microcurie; |
| “radioactive substance” means a radionuclide or mixture of radionuclides, either alone or in chemical combination with other elements; |
“radioactive waste” means any waste which consists wholly or partly of —| (a) | the substance or article which, if it were not waste, would be radioactive material; or | | (b) | a substance or article which has been contaminated in the course of the production, keeping or use of radioactive material or by contact with, or proximity to other waste falling within paragraph (a) of this definition; |
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| “radionuclide” means an isotope of any element which spontaneously emits any ionizing radiation; |
| “registered dentist” means any person who is registered as a dentist in the first division of the register maintained under section 4 of the Dentists Registration Act (Cap. 215); |
| “registered medical practitioner” means any person who is registered or deemed to be registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical Registration Act (Cap. 218); |
| “registered pharmacist” means any person who is registered as a pharmacist under the Pharmacists Registration Act (Cap. 223); |
| “sell” includes supplying or otherwise dealing in or disposing of, whether by way of sale, loan or gift, or offering or attempting to sell, or receiving for sale, or exposing for sale, or having in possession for sale, or sending or delivering for sale, or causing to be sold, offered or exposed for sale and also includes barter, and “sale”, “buying”, “vendor” and “purchaser” have corresponding meanings; |
| “therapeutic radiologist” means a registered medical practitioner who has received special training and has knowledge in the safe use or application of irradiating apparatus or radioactive materials for the purpose of treating or alleviating any abnormal condition of the human body or for any other purpose requiring such specialised training or knowledge; |
| “veterinary surgeon” means a person who holds the diploma of membership of a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons of England, or the diploma of a British or foreign veterinary institution or examining body approved for the purposes of the Poisons Act (Cap. 164) and includes any veterinary surgeon employed by the Government. |
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