In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,

“activity” includes

(a) the design, manufacture, construction, import, export, distribution, sale, loan, commissioning, use, operation, maintenance, repair, transfer, decommissioning or possession of radiation sources for industrial, education, research, agriculture and medical purposes;

(b) the transport of radioactive material and nuclear material;

(d) the closing down of associated facilities;

(e) the cleanup of sites affected by residues from past activities;

(f) the development, production and use of nuclear energy;

(g) radioactive waste management activities, including the discharge of effluents;

(h) an activity involving a nuclear material as defined in the Safeguards Agreement; and

(i) an activity involving a nuclear material in a nuclear installation;

“Additional Protocol” means the Protocol Additional to the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on the 12th of June 1998;

“applicant” means a person who has applied for authorization under this Act;

“authorization” includes the granting by a regulatory body or other governmental body of written permission for an operator to perform specified activities licensing, certification or registration;

“authorized person” means a person who has been granted authorization;

“Authority” means the Nuclear Regulatory Authority established under section 3;

“baseline survey” means an assessment of a site that is to be commissioned or decommissioned before the commissioning or decommissioning process is commenced;

“Board” means the governing body of the Authority constituted under section 7(1);

“civilian applications” means the non-military use of a nuclear material;

“civilian nuclear reactor” means a non-military nuclear reactor;

“clearance” means the removal of radioactive materials or radioactive objects within authorized practices from any further control by the regulatory body;

“Commission” means the Atomic Energy Commission established under section 1 of the Atomic Energy Commission Act, 2000 (Act 588);

“consignee” means a person or government which receives a consignment;

“consignor” means individual, organization or government which prepares a consignment for transport, and is named as consignor in the transport document;

“consignment” means any package or load of radioactive material and nuclear material presented by a consignor for transportation;

“controlled items” means an item determined by the Authority under section 28(1) as being subject to control, as a national policy and in the interest of the security of the country;

“controlled practice” means a practice that is determined by the Authority under section 28(1) as being subject to control, as a national policy and in the interest of the security of the country;

“Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage” means the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage adopted on 12th of September, 1997 by a Diplomatic Conference held 8-12 September 1997, and was opened for signature at Vienna on 29 September 1997 at the 41st General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency;

“criticality” means the state of a nuclear chain reacting medium when the chain reaction is just self-sustaining;

“Director-General” means the Director-General appointed under section 15;

“discharge” means planned and controlled releases into the environment, as a legitimate practice, within limits authorized by the regulatory body, or liquid or gaseous radioactive materials that originate from regulated nuclear facilities during normal operation;

“end state” means the state in the final stage of radioactive waste management in which the waste is passively safe and does not depend on institutional control;

“exclusion” means the exemption of a particular category of exposure from the scope of this Act on the grounds that it is not considered amenable to control;

“exclusive economic zone” means the area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea which does not extend beyond two hundred nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured;

“exemption” means a determination by the Authority that a source or practice or some aspects of the source or practice need not be subjected to regulatory control on the basis that the exposure, including potential exposure, due to the source or practice is too small to warrant the application of those aspects;

“export” means the physical transfer of nuclear material and related equipment, information and technology determined by the Authority as originating from the country, into an importing State;

“facility” includes nuclear facilities, irradiation installations, mining and raw material processing facilities such as uranium mines, radioactive waste management facilities and other places where radioactive material is produced, processed, used, handled, stored or disposed of or where radiation generators are installed on a scale that consideration of protection of safety is required;

“import” means the physical transfer, into the country, originating from an exporting State, of nuclear material and related equipment, information and technology, as defined by the Authority;

“intervention” means any act intended to reduce or avert exposure or the likelihood of exposure to sources which are not part of a controlled practice or which are out of control as a consequence of an accident;

“ionising radiation “ means, for the purposes of radiation protection, radiation capable of producing ion pairs in biological materials;

“location outside facilities” means an installation or location, where nuclear material is customarily used in amounts of one effective kilogram or less;

“man-made factors” includes settlements and related activities likely to impact on the safety of a nuclear installation:

“measures of reinstatement” means any reasonable measures which have been approved by the Authority and which aim to reinstate or restore damaged or destroyed components of the environment, or to introduce, where reasonable, the equivalent of these components into the environment;

“mine or mill processing radioactive ores” means installation for mining, milling or processing ores that contain uranium series or thorium series radionuclides;

“Minister” means the Minister responsible for the Authority;

“non-ionising radiation” means any type of electromagnetic radiation that does not carry energy per quantum to ionize atoms or molecules;

“notification” means a document submitted to the Authority by a person to express the intention of that person to carry out an activity or a practice;

“nuclear damage” means

(a) loss of life or personal injury;

(b) loss of property or damage to property;

(c) economic loss arising from loss, injury or damage referred to under paragraph (a) or (b), and incurred by a person entitled to claim in respect of that loss, injury or damage;

(d) the costs of measures taken or to be taken to reinstate an impaired environment, except where the impairment is insignificant;

(e) loss of income derived from an economic interest in any use or enjoyment of the environment, incurred as a result of a significant impairment of that environment;

(f) the cost of preventive measures, and further loss or damage caused by those measures;

(g) any other economic loss, other than that caused by the impairment of the environment, if permitted by the general law on civil liability of a court of competent jurisdiction; and

(h) in the case of paragraphs (a) to (e) and (g) above, to the extent that the loss or damage arises out of or results from ionizing radiation emitted by any source of radiation inside a nuclear installation, or emitted from nuclear fuel or radioactive products or waste in, or of nuclear material coming from, originating in, or sent to, a nuclear installation, whether so arising from the radioactive properties of that matter, or from a combination of radioactive properties with toxic, explosive or other hazardous properties of that matter;

“nuclear energy” means energy released in nuclear fission or fusion;

“nuclear fuel” means any material which is capable of producing energy by self-sustaining chain process of nuclear fission or nuclear fusion;

“nuclear incident” means any occurrence or series of occurrences having the same origin which

(a) causes nuclear damage, but with respect to preventive measures only; or

(b) creates a grave and imminent threat of causing that damage;

“nuclear installation” means

(a) nuclear power plant, enrichment plant or reprocessing facility;

(b) any nuclear reactor other than one with which a means of sea or air transport is equipped for use as a source of power, whether for its propulsion or for any other purpose;

(c) any factory using nuclear fuel for the production of nuclear material, or any factory that processes nuclear material, including any factory for the re-processing of irradiated nuclear fuel; and

(d) any facility where nuclear material is stored, other than storage incidental to the carriage of the material;

“nuclear material” means

(a) nuclear fuel, other than natural uranium capable of producing energy by a self- sustaining chain process of nuclear fission outside a nuclear reactor, either alone or in combination with some other material; and

(b) radioactive products or waste;

“nuclear reactor” means a structure containing nuclear fuel arranged in a manner to create a controlled self-sustaining chain process of nuclear fission;

“operator” means the person legally recognized as responsible for the operation of a nuclear installation or the person designated by the legally recognized operator;

“ore” means a geological material that may contain

(a) nuclear material or radioactive material; or

(b) nuclear substance or radioactive substance;

“orphan source” means a radioactive source which is not under regulatory control because it has never been under regulatory control, or because it has been abandoned, lost, misplaced, stolen, or transferred without proper authorization;

“panel” means the Complaints Panel appointed by the Minister under section 83;

“Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy” means the Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy adopted in Paris and which entered into force on 1st of April, 1968;

“peaceful use” means any use of a nuclear material, radioactive material, nuclear technology or radioactive technology, other than for a military purpose;

“practice” means any human activity that introduces additional sources of exposure or exposure pathways or extends exposure to additional people or modifies the network of exposure pathways from existing sources, so as to increase the exposure or the likelihood of exposure of people or the number of people exposed;

“preventive measure” means any reasonable measure approved by the Authority to be taken by a person, before or after an incident, to prevent or minimize a nuclear damage;

“radiation” means anything that is capable of emitting ionizing or non-ionising radiation or releasing radioactive substances or materials;

“radioactive material” means

(a) anything containing radio nuclides that may cause radiation exposure; or

(b) a naturally occurring radioactive material;

“radioactive products” means any material made radioactive by exposure to radiation incidental to the production or utilisation of nuclear fuel, but does not include radioisotopes which have reached the final stage of fabrication and can be used for any scientific, medical, agricultural, commercial or industrial purpose;

“radioactive source” means radioactive material that is permanently sealed in a capsule or closely bonded, in a solid form and which is not exempt from regulatory control and includes any radioactive material released through the breakage or leaking of the source, but does not include nuclear material or material encapsulated for disposal;

“radioactive waste” means material, in whatever physical form, remaining from practices or interventions and for which further use is not foreseen

(a) that contains or is contaminated with radioactive substances and has an activity or activity concentration higher than the level set for clearance from regulatory requirements, and

(b) exposure to which is not excluded from this Act or Regulations;

“reasonable measure” means a measure permitted under the laws of Ghana as being appropriate and proportionate to the damage, having regard among other things to

(a) the nature and extent of the damage incurred or, in the case of preventive measures, the nature and extent of the risk of that damage;

(b) the extent of effectiveness of the measure at the time it was taken; and

“relevant field” includes a qualification and practical experience in nuclear law or the application of nuclear energy, radiation, nuclear safety and security, safeguards and radiation protection;

“Safeguards Agreement” means an Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on 17th February, 1975 for the purpose of implementation of safeguards;

“sealed source” means radioactive material that is

(a) permanently sealed in a capsule; or

(b) closely bounded and in a solid form;

“security” means measures to prevent sabotage, unauthorized access or damage to, loss, theft or unauthorised transfer of radioactive sources or nuclear material, or malicious acts with respect to radioactive sources or nuclear material;

“source” includes any of the following that may cause radiation exposure:

(a) the emission of ionising radiation;

(b) the release of radioactive substances or materials;

(d) a sterilization gamma irradiation unit; or

(e) an x-ray unit;

“source material” means a material which is a source;

“Special Drawing Rights” means the unit of account determined and used by the International Monetary Fund for its operations and transactions;

“spent fuel” means nuclear fuel that

(a) is removed from a reactor after irradiation because it cannot be used in its present form due to depletion of fissile material, poison build up or radiation damage; or

(b) has been irradiated and permanently removed from a reactor core;

“unamenable” includes sources of radiation exposure that cannot be controlled from the point of view of protection and safety and cosmic rays at ground level and potassium 40 in the environment; and

“Vienna Conventions on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage” means the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage adopted by a Diplomatic Conference, 8-12 September 1997, and was opened for signature at Vienna on 29th September, 1997 at the forty-first General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.