From 21 January to 1 February, the IAEA’s Vienna headquarters was both the campus and the classroom for the School for Drafting Regulations on Radiation Safety, a series of workshops designed to help ensure compatibility between national regulations and IAEA safety standards. The third such session organized for regulatory bodies in the Africa is part of a regional IAEA technical cooperation (TC) project. It focused on assisting national experts as they revised and updated their national regulatory frameworks to align with the International Basic Safety Standards for Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources. Moreover, for the first time, this School will be followed by the School for Drafting Nuclear Security Regulations, which will be held from 4 to 7 February.
Without a strong regulatory framework, the use of radiation sources cannot be considered safe or secure. The effectiveness of this framework, in turn, relies on an independent regulatory body and on national laws for radiation safety. The IAEA has published a suite of comprehensive, internationally-accepted standards which ensure that patients, workers and the public are adequately protected from the dangers of ionizing radiation. The IAEA facilitates the implementation of these standards through network- and capacity-building initiatives, such as the Schools for Drafting Regulations.
Organized in each TC region and designed according to Member State needs, the Schools for Drafting Regulations are capacity building events whose interdisciplinary approach facilitates the development of national regulations in line with international standards and best practices.
