# The Nuclear Installations (Excepted Matter) Regulations 1978, Note: Explanatory note


These Regulations prescribe, for the purposes of paragraph (d) of the definition of “excepted matter” in section 26(1) of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (“the Act”), certain specified quantities and forms of nuclear matter, and supersede the Nuclear Installations (Excepted Matter) Regulations 1965. They bring the definition of excepted matter in those Regulations into line with recent international decisions taken in relation to the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy (“the Convention”), to which the United Kingdom is a Contracting Party, and on which the liability provisions of the Act are founded.
If nuclear matter falls within the quantities and forms prescribed it is excluded from the provisions of the Act, and so does not attract the strict liability for damage which is imposed on United Kingdom operators of such installations under sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Act, or on responsible parties under section 11.
The quantities and forms prescribed correspond with those determined by the Steering Committee of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for the purposes of the Convention. This Committee, on which all Contracting Parties are represented, has power to exclude nuclear substances from the provisions of the Convention if in its view the small extent of the risk involved so warrants.
The first material excepted by the Regulations is uranium in which the mass of the fissile isotope 235 does not exceed 1% of the total uranium mass, and in which the radioactivity due to non-uranium contaminants does not exceed a specified very low value. This exception was not contained in the 1965 Regulations. It includes uranium recovered from spent nuclear fuel, which, unlike natural uranium, contains small amounts of radioactive contaminants. Natural uranium (which contains about 0.72% of this fissile isotope 235) and uranium containing less than 0.72% of this fissile isotope, are already excepted by section 26(1) of the Act.
In addition, a consignment of nuclear matter leaving a nuclear installation is excepted by the Regulations if it does not exceed specified limits of activity (and in the case of fissile materials, of mass) and is also packed and labelled in accordance with the appropriate provisions of the 1973 Revised Edition of the Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials, published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, dated 1973 (or in some cases relating to fissile materials, the 1967 Edition of those Regulations).
Compared with the 1965 Regulations, the principal changes in relation to consignments are that activity limits and packing requirements now take account of the most recent IAEA Regulations. In particular, the activity limit of each radionuclide is dependent upon its “A2 value” as specified in those IAEA Regulations: the new version of Schedule 1 reflects this. The former Regulations 3(v) and 4(4) have been omitted, their requirements being covered by the revised IAEA Regulations.
The IAEA Regulations may be obtained from Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1978/1779/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/nuclear-installations-excepted-matter-regulations-1978/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.