Duty on licence holders—reporting nuclear safety incidents
21 Duty on licence holders—reporting nuclear safety incidents
A person who is the holder of a licence must report, in accordance with subsection (3), any nuclear safety incident that occurs in relation to a regulated activity authorised by the licence.
A person covered by this subsection may also have a duty under another law of the Commonwealth to report the incident to another entity.
An incident is a nuclear safety incident if:
it relates to nuclear safety; and
it:
results in, or could have resulted in, the death of, serious injury to, or serious illness in, an individual; or
results in, or could have resulted in, a serious environmental incident; or
is of a kind prescribed by the regulations.
The report under subsection (1):
must be given to the Regulator immediately after the person becomes aware of the incident; and
must be in writing, or may be given orally but must be confirmed by written notice given to the Regulator as soon as practicable after being given orally; and
must be in the approved form (if any); and
must contain the information (if any) prescribed by the regulations; and
must be given to the Regulator in the manner (if any) prescribed by the regulations.
Civil penalty provision
A person is liable to a civil penalty if the person contravenes subsection (1).
It is not necessary to prove a person’s state of mind in proceedings for a contravention of a civil penalty provision, except in limited circumstances (see section 94 of the Regulatory Powers Act).
Under subsection 82(5) of the Regulatory Powers Act, the pecuniary penalty imposed for a contravention of a civil penalty provision must not be more than that specified for the provision (or, for a body corporate, not more than 5 times that specified).
Civil penalty: 5,000 penalty units.
Offence
A person commits an offence if:
the person is the holder of a licence; and
the person engages in conduct; and
the conduct contravenes subsection (1).
Penalty:
for an individual—imprisonment for 6 years or 350 penalty units, or both; or
for a body corporate—14,000 penalty units.
Strict liability applies to paragraphs (5)(a) and (c).
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