This Safety Guide supplements and provides recommendations on meeting the requirements related to ageing management and long term operation that are established in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-2/1 (Rev.1), Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design, and IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-2/2 (Rev.1), Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Commissioning and Operation. It provides guidance for operating organizations on implementing and improving ageing management, obsolescence management and on developing a programme for safe long term operation for nuclear power plants. It may also be used by the regulatory body in preparing regulatory requirements, codes and standards, and in verifying effective ageing management, obsolescence management and preparation for safe long term operation of nuclear power plants.

Decommissioning is the last step in the lifetime management of an authorized facility, and it must be considered during the design, construction, commissioning and operation of such facilities. This publication provides guidance on how to comply with requirements for the safe decommissioning of nuclear power plants, research reactors and other nuclear fuel cycle facilities. It addresses all the aspects of decommissioning that are required to ensure safety, including roles and responsibilities, strategy and planning for decommissioning, conduct of decommissioning actions and completion of decommissioning. It is intended for use by those working in policy and strategy development, planning, implementation and regulatory control of decommissioning.

This Safety Guide provides recommendations and guidance on fulfilling the requirements of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3, Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards, for ensuring radiation protection and safety of radiation sources in medical uses of ionizing radiation with regard to patients, workers, carers and comforters, volunteers in biomedical research, and the public. It covers radiological procedures in diagnostic radiology (including dentistry), image guided interventional procedures, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. Recommendations and guidance are provided on applying a systematic approach to ensure that there is a balance between being able to utilize the benefits from medical uses of ionizing radiation and minimizing the risk of radiation effects to people.

A robust operating experience programme prevents or minimizes the risk of future events by learning from events that have already occurred. This Safety Guide provides recommendations for establishing, implementing, assessing and continuously improving an operating experience programme for nuclear installations. The publication is primarily aimed at operating organizations and regulatory bodies responsible for nuclear installations and describes their roles and responsibilities in the overall operating experience programme. However, this publication is also of relevance to other organizations involved in the design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of nuclear installations, including technical support organizations, vendor companies, research establishments and universities.

The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide guidance on the establishment of a 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 States having essentially no elements of a radiation safety infrastructure in place as well as those that already have some.

This publication provides guidance on meeting the requirements of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-5 (Rev.1) relating to research and development facilities in the nuclear fuel cycle. It covers the lifetime of these facilities from site selection through to decommissioning, concentrating on design and operation. It applies to laboratories, pilot workshops and experimental facilities that store, handle and process uranium, plutonium and other transuranics, fission products and activated materials in significant quantities. Such facilities may be involved in the study of chemical, metallurgical or radiological properties of specific radioactive materials such as prototype nuclear fuels (before and after reactor irradiation) or nuclear material or radioactive waste arising from experimental processes. This Safety Guide also applies to research and development for processes and equipment that are envisaged for later use on an industrial scale for the nuclear fuel cycle (e.g. pilot workshops for active waste conditioning).

This publication provides guidance on meeting the requirements of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-5 (Rev. 1) relating to nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities. It covers the lifetime of these facilities, from site selection through to decommissioning, concentrating on the design and operational phases. It applies to facilities that reprocess spent fuel and other material from nuclear power plants that use metallic and oxide fuels, including materials from mixed oxide (MOX) fuel and breeder reactors. It covers the safety issues relating to: the handling of spent fuel; mechanical treatment and the dissolution of spent fuel in acid; the separation of uranium and plutonium from fission products using solvents; the separation and purification of plutonium and uranium; and the production and storage of solutions and oxides to be used as feed material to form fresh uranium oxide or MOX fuel.

This Safety Guide provides guidance on the predisposal management of all types of radioactive waste (including spent nuclear fuel declared as waste and high level waste) generated at nuclear fuel cycle facilities. These waste management facilities may be located within larger facilities or may be separate, dedicated waste management facilities (including centralized waste management facilities). The Safety Guide covers all stages in the lifetime of these facilities, including their siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation, and shutdown and decommissioning. It covers all steps carried out in the management of radioactive waste following its generation up to (but not including) disposal, including its processing (pretreatment, treatment and conditioning). Radioactive waste generated both during normal operation and in accident conditions is considered.

This Safety Guide provides operating organizations that generate and manage radioactive waste as well as regulatory bodies and government bodies with recommendations on how to meet the requirements for the predisposal management of radioactive waste generated at nuclear power plants and research reactors (including subcritical and critical assemblies). It covers all stages in the lifetime of waste management facilities, including their siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation, and shutdown and decommissioning. It covers all steps carried out in the management of radioactive waste following its generation up to (but not including) disposal, including its processing (pre-treatment, treatment and conditioning). Radioactive waste generated during normal operation and in accident conditions is considered.

This publication is a revision and combination of two Safety Guides, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-G-1.1 and No. NS-G-1.3. The revision takes into account developments in instrumentation and control (I&C) systems since the publication of the earlier Safety Guides. The main changes relate to the continuing development of computer applications and the evolution of the methods necessary for their safe, secure and practical use. In addition, account is taken of developments in human factors engineering and the need for computer security. This Safety Guide also references and takes into account other IAEA safety standards and IAEA Nuclear Security Series publications that provide guidance relating to I&C design.

This Safety Guide provides recommendations on the necessary characteristics of electrical power systems for nuclear power plants, and of the processes for developing these systems, in order to meet the safety requirements of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-2/1 (Rev. 1). It reflects the changes that have been made to SSR-2/1, in particular to Requirement 68 on emergency power supply.

In the IAEA safety standards, a ‘consumer product’ is defined as a device or manufactured item into which radionuclides have deliberately been incorporated or produced by activation, or which generates ionizing radiation, and which can be sold or made available to members of the public without special surveillance or regulatory control after sale. Many such products, including irradiated gemstones, are sold in commercial outlets and over the Internet. This Safety Guide outlines the regulatory approach to authorizing the manufacture and supply of such products to the public, including justification, safety assessment and application of the criteria for exemption. The guidance will also assist manufacturers, transport companies and suppliers to comply with regulatory requirements during the life cycle of consumer products, including recycling and disposal at the end of their useful life.