Nuclear Law Research Articles

Nuclear Power Program in Turkey as a Nuclear Newcomer Country

Turkey's interest in pursuing a nuclear power program can be attributed to the necessity to meet the country's fast expanding electricity consumption while also assisting economic development. Turkey, as a nuclear newcomer country and a member of the global nonproliferation regime, has been interested in civilian nuclear technology since 1970s. Despite substantial development in domestic energy output, Turkey still relies heavily on imported energy. In this regard, diversification of resources to generate electricity presents significant importance for the country. 
 Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) project proposes a unique concept for the construction of the country's first NPP with its own model (BOO model). The paper examines Turkey's electricity demand, the motivations for pursuing nuclear energy, and the substance of the parties' intergovernmental agreement for the BOO madel. Finally, as a nuclear newcomer country, the significance of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) in the framework of the domestic legal law and international nuclear law is emphasized.

Legal aspects of small modular reactors in Polish nuclear law

Polskie przedsiębiorstwa pilnie potrzebują przyjęcia nowych strategii w celu dekarbonizacji. Aby to osiągnąć, niezbędne może stać się wdrożenie energetyki jądrowej. W szczególności małe reaktory modułowe, które mają być komercyjnie dostępne w latach trzydziestych XXI wieku mogą dostarczyć czystej, zeroemisyjnej energii. Celem tego artykułu jest znalezienie odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy małe reaktory modułowe mogą stać się ważną częścią przyszłego miksu energetycznego w polskim przemyśle. W artykule zastosowano metodę prawnoporównawczą. W jej wyniku autor doszedł do wniosku, że małe reaktory modułowe mogą być wdrożone w Polsce. W podsumowaniu artykułu autor zaproponował prawne oraz legislacyjne działania, których celem może być dostosowanie krajowego prawa energii jądrowej do specyfiki małych reaktorów modułowych, włączając w to przekrojowe wskazanie głównych kierunków rozwoju działań polskiego rządu w kierunku rozwoju małych reaktorów modułowych.

List of Correspondents to the Nuclear Law Bulletin

List of Correspondents to the Nuclear Law Bulletin

The future of nuclear energy and the role of nuclear law

The future of nuclear energy and the role of nuclear law

Nuclear Power Under the Prophetic Legal Paradigm

This paper aimed to discuss nuclear power under the prophetic legal paradigm. Discussions of nuclear power frequently concentrate solely on its use as a weapon. There are many advantages to nuclear power. To fully utilize its benefits, and prevent any negative uses, a solid and transparent legal framework is required. However, a simply written law may be insufficient because it is conceivable for the law to fall short of the ideal to which it aspires. As a result, both at the international and national levels of the government in Indonesia, it is vital to include religious principles in the law. The prophetic legal paradigm is thought to be the most suitable framework for legal studies that relate to religious beliefs. This analysis demonstrated that the Indonesian nuclear law framework must be updated. It is crucial to keep in mind that the state cannot merely create rules that have no intrinsic purpose - ultimately offering phony security and justice. Laws must consider principles that serve interests of the humanity, particularly in Indonesia. Transcendence, liberty, and humanization are three values that can be combined. This paradigm will lead to the establishment of nuclear law with prophetic dimensions, bringing about real security and justice.
 Keywords: Nuclear Power, Nuclear Law, Prophetic Law

The law of war as a source of contemporary branches of international law

Branches of international law arise mainly as a result of the following factors: 1) complications of international legal consciousness (international human rightslaw, international security law, international environmental law, international criminal law, etc.) and 2) technological progress (international air, space, nuclear law, relevant innovations in international maritime law, etc.). Under the influence of the same factors, new institutions are formed within existing branches (responsibility for international crimes, prohibitions of genocide, prohibitions of apartheid, responsibility for environmental pollution, instant custom, etc.). The article examines the mechanism of formation of the international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflicts, international security law, international human rights law, and international criminal law. It is claimed that they are based on a traditional section of pre-classical international law - the law of war. The first attempts to regulate the conduct of armed conflicts formed the basis for the creation of these branches. The first scientific systematization of international law was one proposed by Hugo Grotius. The scholar proposed to divide the system of this law into two interrelated components - the law of war and the law of peace. Grotian systematization formed the basis of further scientific systematics of international law in the 17th-19th centuries. The Hague Peace Conferences changed the traditional view of the division of international law into the law of war and peace. The Hague peace conventions influenced on formation of the international humanitarian law. The 20th century became a period of active formation of new branches of international law within the framework of the process of "codification and progressive development of international law" under the auspices of the United Nations. So the traditional law of war gave birth to several branches of modern international law.

Contemporary international Law:Regulating the upcoming fukushima radioactive wastewater discharge

In April 2021, the Japanese government decided to release tonnes of radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, a decision that will likely to pose a direct threat to the marine environment of not only Japan, but also the jurisdictional waters of neighboring countries. Legal measures such as litigation against Japan has been an option for the neighboring countries, although they require more time than available, unless interim measure are ordered. Based on a multidisciplinary research approach that integrates open-source research data, authoritative data and conclusions, this paper shows that since the ocean is a complex and changeable system and radionuclides could be redistributed by the ocean currents and eddies, the radioactive wastewater discharge will cause or likely to cause contamination in fish products and fishing grounds and have negative impact on marine life and humans. In response to the widely known skepticism regarding the application and efficiency of international law concerning the 2011 Fukushima Daichii accident, this paper argues that the nuclear law, ocean law and general principles of international law do provide sufficient constraints on the forthcoming radioactive wastewater discharge. Among the IAEA's legal documents, the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) and the Convention on Early Notification are the most applicable conventions to the Fukushima radioactive wastewater discharge. Treaty interpretation of the “at sea” element in the London Dumping Convention and its Protocol is crucial to determine the legitimacy of the planned oceanic discharge activity of Japan. In addition, legal characterization of sources of pollution, the place in which the oceanic discharge activity occurred and Japan's substantive and procedural obligation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) will also affect the treaty application in the forthcoming oceanic discharge. This paper proposes that for the international community as a whole, long term (regional and global cooperation) and short-term measures (inter-State cooperation) need to be taken into consideration in order to tackle Japan's decision as well as laying the framework for any similar discharges that could follow Japan's example.

PRINCIPLES FOR CARRYING OUT ACTIVITIES ON THE USE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY

On the example of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, the main principles (principles) of the implementation of activities on the use of atomic energy are considered. The norms of domestic legislation and the provisions of international acts in the field of carrying out activities on the use of atomic energy are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on national legislation on the use of atomic energy, on environmental protection, and on industrial and radiation safety. The legal characteristics of individual institutions of nuclear law are given. The foreign legal experience related to the activity on the use of atomic energy is considered. References are made to IAEA materials. The practice of international legal regulation of relations on the use of atomic energy and nuclear activity in general is touched upon. During the study, formal-logical, private law methods, as well as a comparative legal method were used. Conclusions are drawn regarding the topic of the study.

Significant legal developments concerning “independent” regulatory agencies in the United States and what it could mean for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Multiple sources of international nuclear law, including binding instruments such as the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS)1 and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (Joint Convention),2 stress the importance of the independence of the regulator, as well as the effective separation of that regulatory body from others tasked with the promotion or utilisation of nuclear energy. Since its creation in 1974, the United States (US) Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been characterised as an “independent agency” within the US government. One of the hallmarks of this independence is that, by law, members of the Commission cannot be removed at will by the President over policy disagreements. However, recent decisions by the US Supreme Court have declared that restrictions on the President’s ability to remove the heads of certain agencies are incompatible with the nation’s constitutional structure and are therefore invalid and unenforceable. As of this writing, these decisions have been limited to independent regulatory agencies headed by a single administrator, not multi-member boards or commissions such as the NRC. However, the Court’s legal reasoning sweeps broadly, and if the holding of these decisions were to be applied to multi-member regulatory bodies (as legal scholars predict), it would shake the organisational bedrock upon which the Commission has rested since its creation. It may also risk transforming the Agency’s public image into that of a political or promotional actor, whose activities are closely overseen by the President who is also responsible for setting energy-related national priorities and goals.

List of correspondents to the Nuclear Law Bulletin

List of correspondents to the Nuclear Law Bulletin

Translation of Cohesive Devices in Selected Legal Text Types from English into Arabic

Translation is a significant medium for transferring knowledge, culture, religion and innovations. It also becomes an inevitable channel to bridge the gap between a range of languages and cultures. With a wide spectrum of characteristics, translation depends on the text-type in order to determine the nature, behavior, characteristics and functionality of linguistic aspects. In legal translation, the language itself and its constituents, such as cohesive devices, are considered sensitive and therefore make the translation a sensitive and difficult task that requires academic investigation to determine linguistic occurrences. This study handled the cohesive devices at the inter-sentential level. Thus, the present research adopts a mixed-method as research design, and it uses the well-established theories of Halliday and Hasan (1976) on cohesion. The text-type examined are operative legal texts, namely, Agreement between the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments and a legal book called Handbook on Nuclear Law. The research reveals that most of the cohesive devices identified in the theory of Halliday and Hasan (1976) do occur in the operative legal texts and legal books. It is found that cohesive devices and their frequency are determined by some language peculiarities and some language norm choices in translating legal texts from the English language into the Arabic language. The study recommends that other investigations should be done on the internal cohesion and external cohesion in legal texts and other text-type. It is also advised for future research to examine substitution and ellipsis in different technical texts to see if they have similar or different findings.

A democratic nuclear energy transition? Public participation in nuclear activities

AbstractGovernments, local authorities and civil society organizations are becoming increasingly vocal regarding the domestic and transboundary risks that nuclear power represents to health and the environment. While participatory rights are gaining importance in the nuclear sector, nuclear‐related activities have been at the centre of inconsistencies and uncertainties in the practice of public participation under the Aarhus and Espoo Conventions. Against this background, this article analyses the interactions between international environmental law and international nuclear law to understand how environmental democracy principles apply in the context of nuclear activities. It presents the relationship as mutually beneficial: despite inherent tensions due to the nature of nuclear activities, these interactions hold important promises to democratize the nuclear field on the one hand and strengthen environmental democracy on the other.

List of correspondents to the Nuclear Law Bulletin

List of correspondents to the Nuclear Law Bulletin

Status and Perspective of China’s Nuclear Safety Philosophy and Requirements in the Post-Fukushima Era

The significant impact brought by a severe nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Japan in March 2011 has made global regulators to review the requirements against severe accidents. In China, comprehensive safety inspection and external hazard safety margin assessment on NPPs were carried out, regulatory requirements on improvement measures for NPPs based on the inspection were given, the nuclear safety 5-year plan was made and executed, and the safety requirements on the new NPP design were drafted. The Nuclear Safety Law came into effect in 2018. The “Code on the Safety of Nuclear Power Plant Design” (HAF102) was revised in 2016, and relevant safety guides were developed. In this article, improvement actions and requirements about NPP safety in China over the past 10 years were reviewed, and the nuclear safety philosophy and requirements including practical elimination, classification of accident conditions, and defense in depth portable equipment were elaborated. In summary, some suggestions of NPP safety in China in the future were provided.

Energy security in Poland – transformation and role of nuclear energy

Currently, Poland is facing the challenge of energy transformation towards a zero-emissional energy system. In this article author presents basic assumptions of Poland’s energy security system. Moreover, a particular focus is set on replacement of coal power plant, which are currently a fundament of Polish electricity production system. Therefore, in this article is examined a several aspects of transformation of national energy mix with analise of nuclear energy as a potentially significant part of future energy security fundament. This article also presents the possibilities of implementing various types of nuclear power facilities, as well as de lege lata and de lege ferenda postulates in the Polish nuclear law.

The Implementation of the Precautionary Principle in Nuclear Safety Regulation: Challenges and Prospects

The precautionary principle has been implemented in many fields including environment protection, biological diversity, and climate change. In the field of international nuclear safety regulation, the implementation of this principle is in an ongoing process. Since Japan declared to discharge Fukushima nuclear waste water into the ocean, the precautionary principle was put on the stage, and some debates are invoked on it. As is observed by this article, the precautionary principle has not been effectively implemented in nuclear safety regulation, specifically in nuclear safety law making, law enforcement, and judicial application. The reasons can be found from two main challenges: indeterminacy of perceived risk level required to justify precautionary action and hard balance of national interest and community interest in nuclear safety. In a long-term perspective, the framework of international nuclear safety regulation has to respond to these challenges, both by clarifying the precautionary principle in legal binding nuclear safety documents and moving towards a more transparent, fair, and effective enforcement regime in order to promote safer, more sustainable, and efficient civilian nuclear utilization around the world.

Basic Ionization Dosimetry for Radiological Protection Management

Management of exposure to ionizing radiation based on the three principles of radiological protection (justification, optimization, and dose limits) requires precision and accuracy of the entire dosimetry chain starting with the absorbed dose and ending with the effective dose. Approved absorbed dose limits below about 100 mSvper five years are important to prevent the induction of stochastic effects.In this sense, the paper reviews the basics of exposure to external and internal radiation using ionization dosimetry. After presenting the characteristics of ionizing radiation, radiometric quantities (Φ, , Ψ,Ψ̇) and dose constants (ΓX, ΓK, ΓD), the paper presents, first, the basic dosimetry quantities (X, K, D), the factors calibration coefficients (NX, NK, ND,), photon interaction coefficients (µ/ρ, µtr /ρ, µab /ρ), electron interaction coefficients (Scol , Srad , L∆).Continue with the quantities of radiological protection valid for external and internal radiation exposure (DTR, HT , E), based on the quality factor and the radiation and tissues weighting factors(Q, wR, wT), which in turn are based on RBE and the risk coefficients(Ra,Rr,s),to prevention of stochastic effects. Next, the quantities of protection for external exposure, operational quantities of area (H * (10), H ‘(d, Ω)) and individual monitoring (HP (10), HP (d)), quantities of radiological protection for internal exposure, in the MIRD methodology, (D̅= ÃS S(rS ←rT)) and in the ICRP methodology, (HT (50), E (50)) based on the nuclear decay law. Derived quantities for internal exposure control (ALI, DAC), Radon exposure to air (WL, WLM) and dose limits are shown. The paper concludes with the formula for the annual effective dose,E(mSv) =HP (10) + E (50) +Esub(DAC) +E(mSv←WLM), for workers and members of the public.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SELECTED INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY’S PRINCIPLES OF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION IN POLISH NUCLEAR LAW

The subject of this study is the analysis of three selected fundamental principles of nuclear safety and radiation protection based upon the Polish and international nuclear law. In this article, the author characterises the substantive content, the normative meaning, as well as the legal basis of the legal measures implementing: the principle of prime responsibility for safety, the principle of role of government in the context of nuclear framework for safety, and lastly, the principle of leadership and management for safety. The interpretation and conceptual meaning of presented principles refer to the Fundamental Safety Principles, adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency. On the basis of co-operation and voluntary harmonisation, the IAEA has formulated ten safety principles in order to achieve a fundamental safety objective, which is the protection of people and the environment from harmful effects of ionising radiation. Moreover, the national strategy and policy for the development of nuclear safety and radiological protection, as referred to in Article 39p of the Act of 29 November 2000 on Atomic Law1, requires, inter alia, the establishment of the principles of nuclear safety and radiation protection. Consequently, the relation between the Fundamental Safety Principles and the aforementioned strategy, as well as the importance of the principles observed in processes of establishing and applying provisions of Polish nuclear law are also analysed in this study.

PAA PRESIDENT’S OPINIONS PURSUANT TO ARTICLES 36A AND 39B OF THE ATOMIC LAW AS AN EXAMPLE OF PRE-LICENSING OF NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS

This article discusses one of the solutions adopted in the nuclear energy law, which contributes to the reduction of the investment risk. It is the so-called pre-licensing which involves the assessment of key site or technical factors at the pre-investment stage in order to avoid possible problems at the stage of investment implementation. The author analyses the Polish solutions in the context of the general concept of pre-licensing, with particular respect to: the nature of pre-licensing legal instruments (opinions), the scope and requirements of the application for an opinion, and the binding force of pre-licensing acts. The practical significance of this issue is all the greater considering governmental plans to implement nuclear power in Poland and in the light of recent activities of private entities as to the construction of smaller nuclear power plants. In the latter case, prelicensing instruments are already being exercised in practice.

The mirage of universalism in international nuclear liability law: A critical assessment 10 years after Fukushima

AbstractThe desire for a universal (global) regime for nuclear liability has, since the early beginnings of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, represented one of the pillars of international nuclear law. This desire reflects concerns over potential transboundary impacts of a nuclear accident, which can cause damage in regions located thousands of miles from the scene of the accident. A decade ago, such an accident occurred because of an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. This article aims to address the impact of the Fukushima accident on the development of international conventions governing nuclear liability. By analysing the developments in the post‐Fukushima period, this article questions whether these developments show evidence of a development towards such a universal regime or whether the emergence of several regional liability regimes represents a more probable option for the future.