(POS-27) National legal and regulatory framework for Security and Physical Protection in Brazil

luiz pinho – mec

Nuclear security issues related to the prevention, detection, and response to theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, and illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear material and other radioactive substances and their associated facilities are topics of great importance to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [1]. Brazil follows this global concern, as it has a large medical-industrial park that uses high-activity radioactive sources. In view of this, CNEN (National Nuclear Energy Commission), the regulatory body for the Brazilian nuclear sector, published, in 2019, Standard CNEN-NN-2.06, which regulates the Physical Protection of Radioactive Sources and Associated Radiative Facilities. In this sense, this work aims to present the main characteristics of this standard. In short, the standard establishes the regulatory requirements for physical protection that must be met according to the categories of radioactive sources and/or types of installation, allowing the licensee to locate and identify their classification and, therefore, adopt appropriate physical protection measures to protect the radioactive installation from potential credible adversaries that could cause damage through sabotage or through the unauthorized removal of a radioactive source for malicious purposes. Medical and industrial radioactive installations are classified and must submit a Physical Protection Plan, with the deadline varying according to the level of physical protection of the installation. With this standard, CNEN is inserted into the new international context, in accordance with the most modern practices for licensing radioactive installations, in terms of physical protection, following the global trend, with the main objective of protecting the workers of the licensed companies, the population and the environment.