National Strategy for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety

At a general level, this document outlines Norway’s obligations regarding radiation protection and nuclear safety, and serves as a framework over other specific strategies, action plans and documents that contain measures to achieve the goal of national implementation of international obligations within the fields of radiation protection and nuclear safety.

Norway’s intentions

Norway is committed to maintaining a high level of radiation protection and nuclear safety in order to safeguard human health and the environment against the negative effects of radiation.

Any activities involving radiation risk shall be justified. This means that the advantages must outweigh the disadvantages caused by the radiation. The use of radiation shall be optimised. Exposure to ionising radiation shall be kept as low as practically possible, taking into account technological knowledge, social and economic conditions, and within established exposure limits that must not be exceeded.

An important guiding principle for Norway’s management of radiation is to apply a risk-based approach that focuses on Norwegian conditions and the degree of risk. The higher the risk, the stricter the requirements that apply.

This will be done by implementing Norway’s obligations under relevant international conventions into Norwegian legislation and management, following the IAEA’s safety standards, and having an effective, independent radiation and nuclear safety authority.

Norway will take an active role in international efforts to strengthen the global regime for radiation protection and nuclear safety.

In situations that are not easily controllable, a risk-based approach will also be applied. Examples of this include emergencies, cases where organisations/enterprises have previously not complied with regulations, or when dealing with high levels of natural radiation.