National Radiation Protection Policy.

The National Radiation Protection Policy lays down targets to ensure radiation safety and protection in Barbados. The policy objectives are: (i) to ensure the safe life cycle use of ionizing radiation and radioactive materials; (ii) to strengthen the legislative and regulatory framework; and (iii) effective human resources utilization, agency collaboration, stakeholder communication and programme administration.
This policy addresses all activities, processes and practices that utilize ionizing radiation, and nuclear and radioactive materials that pose a risk to the economy, environment, society and individuals. It applies to medical, industrial, agricultural, construction, research, environmental protection, educational activities and all commercial activities, processes and procedures.
The national radiation safety infrastructure will be improved in compliance with the internationally accepted basic safety standards. A regulatory system will be established to ensure proportionality to the level of risk posed by an activity or practice that use nuclear, radioactive materials and ionizing radiation. Management systems will be established to ensure the safety and security of radiation sources, and where possible, to prevent accidents and incidents that could give rise to deterministic radiation injuries. Occupational and public radiation exposure will be minimized by ensuring that radiation doses do not exceed regulated levels. Radioactive sources and wastes will be controlled under a continuous management. Nuclear material, radiation sources and ionizing radiation will be used for beneficial, safe and ethical purposes.
In order to ensure the protection of people and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation, the national legislative framework and regulatory infrastructure will be updated to monitor and control the radiation exposure of people and the release of radioactive material to the environment, to minimize the likelihood of events that might lead to a loss of control over a radioactive source or any other source of radiation, and to mitigate the consequences of such events if they were to occur. Environmental Protection Department, as an independent regulatory department, will be empowered to monitor and regulate processes, practices and procedures that use radioactive sources and ionizing radiation in a manner consistent with the risk posed by the activity or practice. This policy highlights the importance of marking of radioactive sources and their containers; inventory controls to be conducted on a regular basis; compliance with regulatory requirements; public awareness-raising on the safety and security of radioactive sources; and safety and security assessment.
A stakeholder collaboration mechanism will be created to facilitate information exchange among stakeholders, build human resource capacity and effectively manage radiation sources. An information management system will be established to capture, process, distribute and add value to the management of ionizing radiation and radioactive materials will be designed. The licensing process will be automated and optimized to convert the current regulatory and licensing system to a fully digitized process with the appropriate security features to safeguard licensee information from third party access. The information management system will be integrated with the emergency response mechanism to ensure first responders are aware of the locations where radioactive material are stored and establish a mechanism to routinely distribute that information at agreed periods.