PROPOSED REVISION OF STATUTORY FEES FOR RADIATION SOURCES IN ZAMBIA

The Radiation Protection Authority is a regulatory body under the Ministry of Technology and Science. The Authority was established by the Ionising Radiation Protection Act No 16 of 2005 as amended by the Ionising Radiation Protection Act No. 19 of 2011. The mandate of the Authority is to protect the public, workers and the environment from hazards arising from the use of devices or materials capable of producing ionising radiation.

Following the expiry of its Strategic Plan 2019 to 2021. The Authority developed a new Strategic Plan to cover the period 2023 to 2026. The Strategic Plan is aligned to the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP) 2023 – 2026 whose theme is “Socio-economic transformation for improved livelihoods.”

The Authority is contributing towards achieving the aspirations of the 8NDP 2023 – 2026 through the Strategic Development Area 3: Environmental Sustainability; Development Outcome 2: Sustainable environment and natural resources management; Strategy 1: Promote integrated environmental management.

The Authority will strengthen environmental compliance tracking in relation to the mandate. RPA is putting in place measures for educating members of the public, in particular, those living in communities where Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) is used or exploited. This is to prevent undue radiation exposure and over exploitation of the NORM which is itself a natural resource that must be used in a sustainable manner for the long-term economic prosperity. Further to this, the Authority will continue building capacity in the current radiation protection infrastructure with regards to radiation detection, radiation monitoring as well as enforcement of effective management of waste material generated by the use of ionising radiation sources and the NORM industry. Doing so will lead to more environmentally friendly economic activities.

In the current situation the RPA does not have specific fees for certain radiation sources in the Country. The RPA intend to revoke the current Statutory Instrument No. 14 of 2014 which do not include relevant fees for the facilities using radiation sources in Vet, dental and certain areas for monitoring radiation contamination in the Country.

However, as part of the revocation, the Board proposes to adopt the current fee schedule contained in the SI No. 14 of 2014 with amendments on the wording of the cost lines in order to align the schedule to the specific practices in Zambia using ionising radiation. Further, the Board proposes to introduce a few nominal fees which have been provided for under Acts.

The Authority is in the process of developing a revise fee schedule under the Ionising Radiation Protection (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2014.

We now invite stakeholder comments on the proposed amendments to the Regulation. The draft regulation is attached in the 'attachments' segment of this notice for comments.