Information for Class II licensed facilities

Figure 1 – Common areas of candidate weakness, as indicated by CNSC Project Officer during exam

Overall, the most common area of weakness shared among all candidates was knowledge of the CNSC Act and Regulations. Another common weakness was related to the ability of the candidate to communicate their understanding of concepts, such as explaining the purpose of their radiation safety program and providing examples, as opposed to stating definitions or transcribing the relevant regulations.

To better prepare for the RSO certification exam, candidates are encouraged to review any resources that might be useful in covering these topics, including their site-specific radiation safety program. Candidates must also be able to explain how their program aligns with the principles of radiation safety. In addition, a review of the NSCA and the relevant regulations, available on the CNSC website, is suggested.

Common non-compliances

When the CNSC performs an inspection at a facility, its inspectors assess the licensee's program against the applicable regulations and the licence conditions that appear in their licence. Any deficiencies that are noted are cited as non-compliances against the applicable regulation or licence condition. The frequency and types of non-compliances change as regulatory focus shifts or as different technologies are adopted. Regardless of these changes, inspectors have noted the most common non-compliances that occur from year to year. 

Figure 2: Top 10 regulations cited by inspectors during inspections of Class II nuclear facilities

^{NOTE: LC = Licence Condition / GN = General Nuclear Safety and Control Regulations / CII = Class II Nuclear Facility and Prescribed Equipment Regulations / RP = Radiation Protection Regulations}

Figure 2 shows the top 10 cited regulations for Class II nuclear facilities between 2014 and 2016 and table 1 indicates what action would result in a non-compliance against each of these regulations. The frequency is represented by the percentage of inspections in which each regulation was cited at least once. It is possible for more than one non-compliance to be cited against the same regulation. However, for the purposes of figure 2, these were counted only once. It is clear from figure 2 that in many cases the same regulations are consistently cited from year to year.

Table 1: Description of the most commonly cited regulatory references

NOTE: LC = Licence Condition / GN = General Nuclear Safety and Control Regulations / CII = Class II Nuclear Facility and Prescribed Equipment Regulations / RP = Radiation Protection Regulations

Dose to workers

Each licensee that operates a Class II nuclear facility is required to have a radiation protection program. The radiation protection program ensures that contamination levels and radiation doses received by workers are monitored, controlled and maintained below regulatory dose limits, and kept at levels that are as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). Licensees are expected to monitor worker doses and to designate as a nuclear energy worker (NEW) anyone who is likely to receive more than 1 millisievert (mSv) per year in the course of their work.

A total of 6,368 workers at Class II facilities had their occupational doses monitored in 2015. Of these, 4,978 workers were designated as NEWs. There are four main sectors in which Class II facilities can be categorized, the breakdown of which is given in figure 3.

Figure 3: Dose distribution by sector for all workers at Class II facilities reported in 2016

Additional information relating to expectations for security while in transport was published in the Spring 2018 issue of the DNSR newsletter.

Additional information

• Annual regulatory oversight reports on the use of nuclear substances
• November 2017 – Tritium Information Bulletin – contains information regarding tritium levels in enriched water.
  May 2016 – CNSC Expectations for Licensee Response During Skin Contamination Events
• The Directorate of Nuclear Substance Regulation newsletter

Presentations and Papers by staff in the Accelerators and Class II Facilities Division (ACFD)

Participating in outreach activities and disseminating information is an important aspect of the CNSC’s regulatory strategy. For technical presentations or papers, only the abstracts have been included here; however, copies of the presentations are available on request:

• November 2018 – Regulating Energetic Beams for Medical Isotope Production in Canada at the International Conference on Application of RadiotraCers and Energetic Beams in Sciences
• September 2018 – Safety Impact of Exceeding Linac Vault Design Workload Limits at the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists Annual Scientific Meeting
• September 2018 – The Security of High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Units at the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists Annual Scientific Meeting
• April 2018 – Why Class II Radiation Safety Officer Candidates Fail Certification at the Canadian Radiation Protection Association Annual Conference
• April 2018 – Regulatory Oversight of New Accelerator Technologies at the Canadian Radiation Protection Association Annual Conference
• April 2018 – Problems With Pigs – Radioisotope Handling Outside the Hot Cell at the Canadian Radiation Protection Association Annual Conference
• April 2018 – Isotope Production Accelerators Report Card at the Canadian Radiation Protection Association Annual Conference
• March 2018 – Safety Culture Maturity in the Medical Sector at the CANM-CAMRT Joint Annual Conference
• August 2017 – Technetium 99m – from Reactors to Accelerators – Regulatory and Safety Aspects at the International Topical Meeting on the Nuclear Applications of Accelerators
• July 2017 – Beyond the modified Kersey method at the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists Annual Scientific Meeting

Related links

• Act and regulations
• Regulatory documents
• Classes of Nuclear Substances
• Recent news releases
• DNSR newsletter
• Notice of licence template
• Transmitting confidential information to the CNSC from within Canada