Radiation Safety Regulation 2021 (Queensland)

Table of Contents

1. Source documents

  • Official PDF retained locally — current as at 1 October 2025; retrieved 16 September 2026.
  • Extracted text
  • Provenance and SHA-256 metadata

2. Authority and jurisdiction

  • Queensland subordinate legislation made under the Radiation Safety Act 1999; legally binding in Queensland.
  • Prescribes operational detail for the Act, including RSPP measures, RSO qualifications and functions, monitoring, numerical dose limits, source categories, disposal, records and exemptions.

3. Key takeaways

  • Part 4 specifies measures an approved RSPP must address: safe procedures, quality control, remediation after accidents, access and use controls, monitoring devices, safety devices and PPE, and specified records (ss 14–18).
  • Practice-specific provisions add requirements for alarms, radiation monitors, unsealed sources, medical procedures and image identification (ss 19–24).
  • Part 6 prescribes RSO qualifications and functions; this is the immediate legal basis for many RSO activities in the THHS plan.
  • Schedule 5 contains legal occupational and public dose limits. These limits are not treatment-dose limits for a patient undergoing justified medical exposure.
  • The Regulation also prescribes source security categories, monitoring details, authorised persons, registers, exemptions and fees.

4. Summary

4.1. Part 1 — Preliminary

  • Provides commencement, definitions and the Regulation's relationship to the Act.

4.2. Part 2 — Sources, apparatus, security categories and certificates

  • Prescribes radiation sources, apparatus and security-enhanced categories and supports the certificate-of-compliance system.

4.3. Part 3 — Disposal

  • Prescribes conditions and concentration or activity criteria relevant to disposal of radioactive material.

4.4. Part 4 — Radiation safety and protection plans

4.4.1. Sections 14–18 — Core measures

  • Requires the plan to address safe work procedures and quality control, remediation of accidents, access to and use of sources, monitoring equipment, safety devices and PPE, and registers/procedure records.
  • Section 16 specifies which workers wear personal monitoring devices, how and where they are worn or stored, and assessment intervals.

4.4.2. Sections 19–24 — Practice-specific measures

  • Adds controls for warning or alarm systems, radiation monitoring, unsealed radioactive substances, medical procedures and identification associated with medical images or records.
  • Section 19 specifies personal radiation alarm use and checks for relevant ionising-radiation practices.
  • The required content is a minimum framework; the approved RSPP may contain more detailed local controls proportionate to the practice.

4.5. Part 5 — Security-enhanced sources

  • Prescribes matters for source security and security plans. Applicability depends on the categorisation of the source; sensitive operational security detail should remain controlled.

4.5.1. Sections 29–37 — Security plans for use and storage

  • Require graded security measures for applicable security-enhanced sources, including presence checks and inventories (ss 33–34).

4.5.2. Sections 38–44 — Transport security plans

  • Prescribe transport security measures for applicable security-enhanced sources. This is distinct from radioactive-material transport safety requirements and is summarised here without sensitive operational detail.

4.6. Part 6 — Radiation safety officers

  • Specifies qualifications and functions, including advice, training, hazard assessment, monitoring, inspections, incident investigation, records and reporting to the possession licensee.

4.7. Part 7 — Monitoring

  • Prescribes when individual or workplace monitoring is required and how monitoring obligations are administered.

4.8. Part 8 and Schedule 5 — Dose limits

  • Prescribes exposure limits for occupationally exposed adults, occupationally exposed persons aged 16–17, and other persons including the public.
  • Limits are source- and population-scoped legal maxima; optimisation requires exposure to be kept below a limit where reasonably achievable.

4.9. Parts 9–16 and schedules

  • Address authorised persons, banned sources, Act instruments, registers, confidentiality, exemptions, fees and transitional matters.
  • Schedules cover radionuclides, security categories, disposal, RSO qualifications, dose limits, authorised persons, fees and the dictionary.

5. Important definitions, roles, limits and records

Occupational adult limits
Effective dose: 20 mSv per year averaged over 5 years, with no more than 50 mSv in any 12 months. Lens of the eye: the same 20 mSv average and 50 mSv maximum structure. Hands, feet and skin: 500 mSv in any 12 months (sch 5).
Occupational ages 16–17
6 mSv effective dose, 20 mSv to the lens, and 150 mSv to hands, feet or skin in any 12 months (sch 5).
Other persons/public
1 mSv effective dose, 15 mSv to the lens and 50 mSv to skin in any 12 months (sch 5).
Medical exposure
The patient’s prescribed therapeutic exposure is not controlled by occupational/public dose limits; it is controlled through justification, optimisation, authorisation, prescription, dosimetry and QA.
RSO
Must meet the prescribed qualification pathway and perform the prescribed functions; appointment does not transfer every duty away from the possession licensee or individual users.
Records
Part 4 requires source/register and procedure-related records; monitoring, compliance, incident and source-control records are also prescribed or enabled elsewhere.

6. Practical relationship to the THHS RSPP

  • Provides the detailed mandatory content against which the THHS RSPP should be read and audited.
  • Directly supports local controls for access, safe work, QC, monitors, PPE, RSO activity, personal monitoring, dose investigation, registers and incident response.
  • Local investigation levels and ALARA targets may be more restrictive than legal limits; they should be labelled as local controls, not restated as statutory dose limits.

7. See Also