Radiation Protection Bill

Bill No. 14/2007

Read the first time on 9th April 2007.

An Act to repeal and re-enact with amendments the Radiation Protection Act (Chapter 262 of the 1992 Revised Edition) to control and regulate the import, export, manufacture, sale, disposal, transport, storage, possession and use of radioactive materials and irradiating apparatus, to make provision in relation to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and to establish a system for the imposition and maintenance of nuclear safeguards, to provide for matters connected therewith, and to make consequential amendments to certain other written laws.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Radiation Protection Act 2007 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“Agency” means the National Environment Agency established under the National Environment Agency Act (Cap. 195);

“authorised officer” means any person appointed as an authorised officer under section 3(2), and includes the Director-General;

“conveyance” includes any vessel, train, vehicle, aircraft or other mode of transport;

“Director-General” means the Director-General of Environmental Protection appointed under section 3(1) of the Environmental Pollution Control Act (Cap. 94A);

“disposal”, in relation to waste, includes —

(a)	its removal, deposit or destruction;
(b)	its discharge, whether onto land, into water or air, into a sewer or drain, or otherwise; and
(c)	its burial, whether underground or otherwise,

and “dispose of” shall be construed accordingly;

“IAEA” means the International Atomic Energy Agency established by the IAEA Statute;

“IAEA inspector” means an individual designated as an inspector by the IAEA Board of Governors according to the procedures set out in the Safeguards Agreement to carry out an inspection or a visit in accordance with that Agreement;

“IAEA Statute” means the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, being the Statute which was ratified by Singapore on 5th January 1967, and includes any amendment to, or substitution of, the Statute that is binding on Singapore;

“ionising radiations” means electromagnetic radiations and corpuscular radiations which give rise to the formation of ion pairs on interaction with matter;

“irradiating apparatus” means —

(a)	any apparatus that is capable of producing ionising radiation;
(b)	any apparatus of a prescribed type that is capable of producing non-ionising radiation; and
(c)	any component of or accessory to an apparatus described in paragraph (a) or (b);

“licence” means a licence granted under section 7;

“national inspector” means any person who is a national inspector by virtue of, or appointed under, section 19;

“non-ionising radiations” means electromagnetic radiations and fields with wavelengths greater than 100 nanometers and all acoustic radiations and fields with frequencies below 16 Hz and above 16 kHz;

“nuclear material” has the same meaning as in the First Schedule;

“owner”, in relation to any premises, includes —

(a)	the person for the time being receiving the rent for the premises, whether on his own account or as an agent or a trustee for any other person, or the person who would so receive the rent if the premises were let to a tenant; and
(b)	the person whose name is entered in the Valuation List prepared under section 10 of the Property Tax Act (Cap. 254);

“premises” includes —

(a)	messuages, houses, buildings and lands, whether open or enclosed, and whether public or private;
(b)	any place underground and any land covered by water; and
(c)	any structure or conveyance;

“radiation” means ionising radiation or non-ionising radiation;

“radioactive material” means any article containing a radioactive substance giving it a specific or total radioactivity exceeding the prescribed level, and includes any article containing any nuclear material;

“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 an 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);

“radionuclide” means an isotope of any element which spontaneously emits any ionising radiation;

“registered medical practitioner” means any person who is registered or deemed to be registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical Registration Act (Cap. 174);

“Safeguards Agreement” means the Agreement between Singapore and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons signed on 18th October 1977, and includes —

(a)	that Agreement as amended from time to time;
(b)	the protocol thereto signed on 18th October 1977, as amended from time to time; and
(c)	the protocol additional to that Agreement for the application of safeguards, signed at Vienna on 22nd September 2005;

“sell” includes —

(a)	supplying or otherwise dealing in or disposing of, whether by way of sale, loan or gift;
(b)	offering or attempting to sell, receiving for sale, exposing for sale, having in possession for sale, sending or delivering for sale, or causing to be sold, offered or exposed for sale; and
(c)	barter,

and “sale” and “purchase” shall have corresponding meanings.

(2) Any word or expression used and not defined in this Act but defined in the Safeguards Agreement shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the same meaning as in the Safeguards Agreement.

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