Fundamental safety concepts

The objective of this publication is to establish the fundamental safety objective, safety principles and concepts that provide the bases for the IAEA’s safety standards and its safety related programme. Related requirements are established in the Safety Requirements publications. Guidance on meeting these requirements is provided in the related Safety Guides.

This publication states the fundamental safety objective and ten associated safety principles, and briefly describes their intent and purpose. The fundamental safety objective applies to all circumstances that give rise to radiation risks. The safety principles are applicable, as relevant, throughout the entire lifetime of all facilities and activities — existing and new — utilized for peaceful purposes, and to protective actions to reduce existing radiation risks. They provide the basis for requirements and measures for the protection of people and the environment against radiation risks and for the safety of facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks, including, in particular, nuclear installations and uses of radiation and radioactive sources, the transport of radioactive material and the management of radioactive waste.

The Fundamental Safety Principles are jointly sponsored with the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) (the sponsoring organizations).