Regulation 2 InterpretationI1

The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954^f1 shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In these Regulations—

• “the 1965 Act” means the Nuclear Installations Act 1965^f2;

• “the 1993 Act” means the Radioactive Substances Act 1993;

• “the Chief Inspector” means the Chief Inspector appointed by the Department under section 4 of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993^f3;

• F1“contaminated land” has the meaning given to it in regulation 2A;

• F2“the Department” means the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs;

• F3“the Directive” means Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom;

• F4“exposure” means the act of exposing or condition of being exposed to ionising radiation emitted outside the body (external exposure) or within the body (internal exposure);

• “harm” means lasting exposure to any human being resulting from the after-effects of F5an emergency , past practice or past work activity.

• “intervention” means a human activity that prevents or decreases the exposure of individuals to radiation from sources which are not part of a practice or which are out of control, by acting on sources, transmission pathways and individuals themselves;

• “intervention notice” means a notice in writing served by the Chief Inspector on a responsible person requiring intervention;

• “ionising radiation” means the transfer of energy in the form of particles or electromagnetic waves of a wavelength of 100 nanometres or less or a frequency of 3 x 10¹⁵ Hertz or more capable of producing ions directly or indirectly;

• F6“land contaminated by a nuclear occurrence” means contaminated land which, by virtue of it being such, damage to that land has occurred, being—

  1. (a)

     damage caused in breach of any duty imposed by section 7, F77B 8, 9 or 10 of the 1965 Act, or deemed to be so caused by section 12(2) of that Act;

  2. (b)

     damage which would have been so caused or would have been deemed by section 12(2) of the 1965 Act to have been so caused if, F8in section 7(1A)(b) or (1C)(b) of that Act, the words “other than licensee” or, in section 10(1)(b) of that Act, the words “other than the operator” had not been enacted;

  3. (ba)

     F9damage caused by preventative measures taken after a breach of duty imposed by section 7, 7B, 8, 9 or 10 of the 1965 Act in respect of which a claim for compensation may be made if section 11H(4) of that Act had not been enacted; or

  4. (d)

     damage in respect of which any relevant foreign operator or other person is liable under any relevant foreign law, or for which he would be so liable—

     1. (i)

        but for any exclusion or limitation of liability applying by virtue of any provision of that law made for purposes corresponding to those of section 13(3) or (4)(a), 15, 16(1) F10, (1ZA), (1ZB), (2), (3B) or 3(C) and (2) or 18 of the 1965 Act; or

     2. (ii)

        if any such relevant foreign law which does not contain provision made for purposes corresponding to those of section 13(4)(b) of the 1965 Act did contain such provision;

• “lasting exposure” means an exposure likely to give rise to harm to human health arising from one or more of the following dose criteria:

  1. (i)

     an effective dose of 3 millisieverts per annum; or

  2. (ii)

     an equivalent dose to the lens of the eye of 15 millisieverts per annum; or

  3. (iii)

     an equivalent dose to the skin of 50 millisieverts per annum.

• F11“lasting exposure” means an exposure—

  1. (a)

     arising from the after–effects of a radiological emergency, past practice or past work activity; and

  2. (b)

     giving rise to doses that exceed one or more of the following criteria—

     1. (i)

        an effective dose of 3 millisieverts per annum,

     2. (ii)

        an equivalent dose to the lens of the eye of 15 millisieverts per annum, or

     3. (iii)

        an equivalent dose to the skin of 50 millisieverts per annum,

     F12where the estimation of an effective dose is undertaken in accordance with Article 13 of the Directive;

• “licensee”, “relevant foreign law” and “relevant foreign operator” have the meanings given to them by section 26(1) of the 1965 Act;

• “nuclear installations” shall have the same meaning as under the 1965 Act;

• “polluter” means any person, or any of the persons, who caused or knowingly permitted the radioactive substances to be in, on or under the land;

• “practice” means a human activity that can increase the exposure of individuals to radiation from an artificial source, or from a natural radiation source where natural radionuclides are processed for their radioactive, fissile or fertile properties, except in the case of an emergency exposure;

• “radiological emergency” means a situation that requires urgent action in order to provide radiological protection to workers, members of the public or the population either partially or as a whole;

• “relevant foreign law” and “relevant foreign operator” shall have the same meaning as under the 1965 Act;

• F13“responsible person” means—

  1. (a)

     in relation to land contaminated by a nuclear occurrence, the Secretary of State; and

  2. (b)

     in any other situation to which these Regulations apply, first the polluter and if the polluter is not found, the owner or occupier of the land;

• “substance” means, whether in solid or liquid form or in the form of a gas or vapour, any substance which contains radionuclides which have resulted from the after-effects of a F14an emergency or which are or have been processed as part of a past practice or past work activity, but shall not include radon gas or the following radionuclides: Po-218, Pb-214, At-218, Bi-214, Rn-218, Po-214 and Tl-210.

Any other word or expression used both in these Regulations and in the Directive has the same meaning for the purposes of these Regulations as it has in that Directive.

When reading the Directive for the purposes of these Regulations, Article 4(43) of the Directive (definition of inspection) is to be read as if, for the words “any competent authority”, there were substituted “the Chief Inspector”.