Radiological Protection Act
(RPA)

The pur­pose of this Act is to pro­tect people and the en­vir­on­ment against dangers from ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation.

¹ The Act ap­plies to all activ­it­ies, in­stall­a­tions, events and situ­ations that may in­volve an ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation haz­ard, and in par­tic­u­lar to:

a.

the hand­ling of ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances and of in­stall­a­tions, equip­ment and art­icles con­tain­ing ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances or cap­able of emit­ting ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation;

b.

events that may lead to an in­crease in en­vir­on­ment­al ra­dio­activ­ity.

² The term «hand­ling» cov­ers ex­trac­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing, pro­cessing, dis­tri­bu­tion, in­stall­a­tion, use, stor­age, trans­port, dis­pos­al, im­port, ex­port and trans­it, and any oth­er form of trans­fer to a third party.⁴

³ Art­icles 28–38 are not ap­plic­able to activ­it­ies re­quir­ing a li­cence un­der the Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Act of 21 March 2003⁵.⁶

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ex­emp­tions from this Act in the case of sub­stances with low levels of ra­dio­activ­ity.

In ad­di­tion to the pro­vi­sions of this Act, the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions are ap­plic­able:

a.⁷

for nuc­le­ar fa­cil­it­ies, nuc­le­ar goods and ra­dio­act­ive waste, the Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Act of 21 March 2003⁸;

b.

for nuc­le­ar dam­age caused by nuc­le­ar fa­cil­it­ies or the trans­port of nuc­le­ar ma­ter­i­als, the Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Li­ab­il­ity Act of 18 March 1983⁹;

c.

for off-site trans­port of ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances, the fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions on the trans­port of haz­ard­ous goods.

Any­one who causes meas­ures to be taken un­der this Act shall bear the costs there­of.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pro­mote sci­entif­ic re­search on the ef­fects of ra­di­ation and ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion, as well as train­ing in the area of ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion.

² It may:

a.

pro­mote de­vel­op­ment activ­it­ies in these areas;

b.

train spe­cial­ists;

c.

par­ti­cip­ate in en­ter­prises de­voted to re­search or train­ing.

¹ Only duly qual­i­fied per­sons shall be per­mit­ted to carry out activ­it­ies that may in­volve an ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation haz­ard.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the re­quire­ments for the qual­i­fic­a­tions of such per­sons.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the fol­low­ing ad­vis­ory com­mis­sions:

a.

Com­mis­sion for Ra­di­olo­gic­al Pro­tec­tion¹⁰;

b.

Com­mis­sion for ABC-Pro­tec­tion¹¹.¹²

² It shall define their re­spons­ib­il­it­ies.

An activ­ity that in­volves the ex­pos­ure of people or the en­vir­on­ment to ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation (ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure) may only be car­ried out if it can be jus­ti­fied in terms of the as­so­ci­ated be­ne­fits and risks.

All meas­ures dic­tated by ex­per­i­ence and the cur­rent state of sci­ence and tech­no­logy must be ad­op­ted in or­der to lim­it the ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure of each in­di­vidu­al per­son and of all parties con­cerned.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall, in ac­cord­ance with the cur­rent state of sci­entif­ic know­ledge, spe­cify lim­its for ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure (dose lim­its) for per­sons who may be ex­posed to an in­creased level of con­trol­lable ra­di­ation com­pared with the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion as a res­ult of their work or oth­er cir­cum­stances (ex­posed per­sons).

Any­one who handles or is re­spons­ible for a source must take all meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure com­pli­ance with the dose lim­its.

¹ In ex­posed per­sons the ra­di­ation dose must be de­term­ined by ap­pro­pri­ate meth­ods.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late de­term­in­a­tion of the ra­di­ation dose. It shall define, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

those cases where ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure is to be meas­ured in­di­vidu­ally (per­son­al do­si­metry);

b.

the in­ter­vals at which the ra­di­ation dose is to be de­term­ined;

c.

the re­quire­ments for ap­prov­al of per­son­al do­si­metry labor­at­or­ies;

d.

the re­quired re­ten­tion peri­od for the res­ults of per­son­al do­si­metry.

³ Ex­posed per­sons are re­quired to un­der­go any do­si­metry pre­scribed. They shall be in­formed of the res­ults.

¹ Oc­cu­pa­tion­ally ex­posed work­ers covered by com­puls­ory in­sur­ance are sub­ject to the med­ic­al meas­ures for the pre­ven­tion of oc­cu­pa­tion­al dis­eases spe­cified in Art­icles 81–87 of the Ac­ci­dent In­sur­ance Act of 20 March 1981¹³.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also spe­cify med­ic­al meas­ures for oth­er oc­cu­pa­tion­ally ex­posed per­sons.

³ Oc­cu­pa­tion­ally ex­posed per­sons are re­quired to un­der­go any med­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tions pre­scribed.

¹ The phys­i­cian charged with the med­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tion shall dis­close to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity any data ne­ces­sary for med­ic­al sur­veil­lance and the com­pil­a­tion of stat­ist­ics. The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity is not per­mit­ted either to use such data for oth­er pur­poses or to pass it on to third parties.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the data to be dis­closed to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity. It shall define the re­ten­tion peri­od.

¹ No dose lim­its are spe­cified for pa­tients ex­posed to ra­di­ation for dia­gnost­ic or thera­peut­ic pur­poses.

² The ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure of pa­tients shall be at the dis­cre­tion of the per­son re­spons­ible. However, such per­sons must com­ply with the prin­ciples of ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion spe­cified in Art­icles 8 and 9.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue pro­vi­sions for the pro­tec­tion of pa­tients.

¹ The li­cence hold­er or the per­sons in charge of an en­ter­prise are re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing com­pli­ance with the ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions. For this pur­pose, they are re­quired to ap­point an ap­pro­pri­ate num­ber of ex­perts and to provide them with the ne­ces­sary powers and re­sources.

² All per­sons work­ing in an en­ter­prise are re­quired to sup­port the man­age­ment and the ex­perts with re­gard to ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion meas­ures.

¹ In the en­vir­on­ment, there shall be reg­u­lar mon­it­or­ing of ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation and of levels of ra­dio­activ­ity, par­tic­u­larly in air, wa­ter, soil, food­stuffs and feed­ing­stuffs.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall take the ne­ces­sary meas­ures; in par­tic­u­lar, it shall des­ig­nate the bod­ies and in­sti­tu­tions re­spons­ible for mon­it­or­ing.

³ It shall en­sure that the res­ults of mon­it­or­ing are pub­lished.

¹ For the pur­pose of en­vir­on­ment­al mon­it­or­ing, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify off-site lim­its for ra­di­o­nuc­lides and for dir­ect ra­di­ation.

² It shall spe­cify the off-site lim­its so that, ac­cord­ing to the stand­ards of sci­ence and tech­no­logy or based on ex­per­i­ence, ex­pos­ure to ra­di­ation be­low these lim­its does not en­danger hu­man be­ings, an­im­als or plants, their com­munit­ies or hab­it­ats.

³ For ra­di­o­nuc­lides in food­stuffs, the max­im­um con­cen­tra­tions in terms of the food­stuffs le­gis­la­tion ap­ply.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish an emer­gency re­sponse or­gan­iz­a­tion for in­cid­ents that could en­danger the pub­lic as a res­ult of in­creased ra­dio­activ­ity.

² The emer­gency re­sponse or­gan­iz­a­tion shall have, in par­tic­u­lar, the fol­low­ing re­spons­ib­il­it­ies:

a.

in the event of an in­cid­ent, it shall fore­cast the dangers arising for the pub­lic;

b.

it shall mon­it­or the ex­tent and course of in­creased ra­dio­activ­ity and as­sess pos­sible im­pacts on people and the en­vir­on­ment;

c.

where there is an im­min­ent danger, it shall or­der the ne­ces­sary emer­gency meas­ures and su­per­vise their im­ple­ment­a­tion.

³ The de­tails shall be elab­or­ated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. It shall en­sure that the emer­gency re­sponse or­gan­iz­a­tion:

a.

in­forms the com­pet­ent fed­er­al and can­ton­al agen­cies of the ex­tent of the danger and re­quests the ne­ces­sary pro­tect­ive meas­ures;

b.

in­forms the pub­lic.

¹ In the event of danger arising from in­creased ra­dio­activ­ity, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall or­der the meas­ures ne­ces­sary:

a.

to pro­tect the pub­lic;

b.

to se­cure sup­plies throughout the coun­try;

c.

to main­tain es­sen­tial pub­lic ser­vices.

² It shall is­sue the reg­u­la­tions re­quired in the event of danger arising from in­creased ra­dio­activ­ity. In par­tic­u­lar, it shall spe­cify:

a.

the ra­di­ation doses ac­cept­able in ex­cep­tion­al situ­ations;

b.

the duty of per­sons and un­der­tak­ings to as­sume re­spons­ib­il­ity, with­in the scope of their usu­al oc­cu­pa­tion­al and en­tre­pren­eur­i­al activ­it­ies, for cer­tain tasks that are in­dis­pens­able for the pro­tec­tion of the pub­lic; the life and health of the per­sons de­ployed shall be pro­tec­ted;

c.

the equip­ment, train­ing and in­sur­ance cov­er re­quired for per­sons charged with spe­cial tasks.

³ If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the emer­gency re­sponse or­gan­iz­a­tion are not in a po­s­i­tion to or­der the ne­ces­sary meas­ures, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ments or, in ur­gent cases, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al agen­cies or, if need be, the com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies shall take the ne­ces­sary meas­ures.

¹ Un­less the Fed­er­al Coun­cil as­signs re­spons­ib­il­ity for im­ple­ment­a­tion to the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies, the can­tons and com­munes shall be re­spons­ible for the pre­par­a­tion and ex­e­cu­tion of meas­ures in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 20. The can­tons shall col­lab­or­ate with the emer­gency re­sponse or­gan­iz­a­tion.

² If the can­ton­al or com­mun­al bod­ies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­a­tion are not in a po­s­i­tion to ful­fil their func­tions, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may place them un­der the au­thor­ity of the emer­gency re­sponse or­gan­iz­a­tion or in­struct oth­er can­tons to put avail­able re­sources at their dis­pos­al.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes may also en­gage private or­gan­iz­a­tions for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of cer­tain meas­ures.

¹ In cases where the re­lease of dan­ger­ous amounts of ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances in­to the en­vir­on­ment can­not be ruled out, the en­ter­prises con­cerned shall be re­quired, as part of the li­cens­ing pro­ced­ure:

a.

to es­tab­lish, at their own ex­pense, an alarm sys­tem for the pop­u­la­tion at risk or to con­trib­ute pro­por­tion­ally to the costs of a gen­er­al alarm sys­tem;

b.

to par­ti­cip­ate in the pre­par­a­tion and im­ple­ment­a­tion of emer­gency pro­tec­tion meas­ures.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall define the re­spons­ib­il­it­ies of the com­pet­ent fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al agen­cies.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments con­cern­ing:

a.

the mu­tu­al ex­change of in­form­a­tion on en­vir­on­ment­al ra­dio­activ­ity;

b.

im­me­di­ate no­ti­fic­a­tion in the event of danger arising from ra­dio­activ­ity that could cross in­ter­na­tion­al bor­ders;

c.

the har­mon­iz­a­tion of plans for meas­ures to be taken in the event of cross‑bor­der ra­dio­act­ive con­tam­in­a­tion.

If in­creased levels of ra­dio­activ­ity from nat­ur­al or oth­er sources are de­tec­ted in the en­vir­on­ment over a pro­longed peri­od, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may or­der spe­cial meas­ures to lim­it ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure. It may in­volve the can­tons for pur­poses of im­ple­ment­a­tion.

¹ «Ra­dio­act­ive waste» means ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances or ra­dio­act­ively con­tam­in­ated ma­ter­i­als which are not re­used.

² Ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances are to be handled in such a way that as little ra­dio­act­ive waste as pos­sible is gen­er­ated.

³ Ra­dio­act­ive waste arising in Switzer­land must, as a gen­er­al rule, be dis­posed of in this coun­try. By way of ex­cep­tion, an ex­port li­cence may be gran­ted for the dis­pos­al of ra­dio­act­ive waste if:

a.

the re­cip­i­ent coun­try has con­sen­ted to the im­port of the ra­dio­act­ive waste for dis­pos­al in an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment;

b.

an ap­pro­pri­ate nuc­le­ar fa­cil­ity meet­ing in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ards of sci­ence and tech­no­logy is avail­able in the re­cip­i­ent coun­try;

c.

trans­it has been ap­proved by the trans­it coun­tries;

d.

the sender has entered in­to a bind­ing agree­ment with the re­cip­i­ent of the ra­dio­act­ive waste, with the ap­prov­al of the au­thor­ity des­ig­nated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, to the ef­fect that the sender will take back the waste if ne­ces­sary.¹⁵

⁴ By way of ex­cep­tion, an im­port li­cence may be gran­ted for ra­dio­act­ive waste that does not ori­gin­ate in Switzer­land but is to be dis­posed of in this coun­try if:

a.

Switzer­land has con­sen­ted to the im­port of the ra­dio­act­ive waste for dis­pos­al in an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment;

b.

an ap­pro­pri­ate nuc­le­ar fa­cil­ity meet­ing in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ards of sci­ence and tech­no­logy is avail­able in Switzer­land;

c.

trans­it has been ap­proved by the trans­it coun­tries;

d.

the re­cip­i­ent has entered in­to a bind­ing agree­ment with the sender of the ra­dio­act­ive waste, with the ap­prov­al of the coun­try of ori­gin, to the ef­fect that the sender will take back the waste if ne­ces­sary.¹⁶

¹ On-site, ra­dio­act­ive waste must be handled and stored in such a way as to min­im­ize re­leases of ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances to the en­vir­on­ment.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the con­di­tions un­der which low-level ra­dio­act­ive waste may be dis­charged to the en­vir­on­ment.

³ Ra­dio­act­ive waste that is not to be dis­charged to the en­vir­on­ment must be suit­ably re­tained or se­curely con­tained, pos­sibly in so­lid­i­fied form, col­lec­ted and stored at a site ap­proved by the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity while await­ing sur­render or ex­port.¹⁷

¹ Any­one who pro­duces ra­dio­act­ive waste not arising as a res­ult of the use of nuc­le­ar en­ergy is re­quired to sur­render it to a centre des­ig­nated by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

² The waste pro­du­cer must bear the costs of dis­pos­al.¹⁹

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the treat­ment of waste on-site and its sur­render.²⁰

⁴ If im­me­di­ate sur­render or dis­pos­al is not pos­sible, or not ap­pro­pri­ate for reas­ons of ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion, the waste must be placed in su­per­vised in­ter­im stor­age.²¹

A li­cence is re­quired by any­one who:

a.

handles ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances or equip­ment and art­icles con­tain­ing ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances;

b.

man­u­fac­tures, dis­trib­utes, in­stalls or uses in­stall­a­tions and equip­ment cap­able of emit­ting ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation;

c.

ad­min­is­ters ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation and ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances to hu­mans.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may:

a.

sub­ject oth­er activ­it­ies that may in­volve an ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation haz­ard to man­dat­ory li­cens­ing;

b.

ex­empt activ­it­ies spe­cified in Art­icle 28 let­ters a or b from man­dat­ory li­cens­ing if an ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation haz­ard can be ruled out;

c.

spe­cify the con­di­tions un­der which cer­tain types of art­icles, in­stall­a­tions and equip­ment con­tain­ing ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances or cap­able of emit­ting ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation may, after test­ing of the stand­ard mod­el, be gran­ted gen­er­al ap­prov­al or ap­prov­al re­stric­ted to cer­tain ap­plic­a­tions.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the li­cens­ing au­thor­it­ies.

A li­cence shall be gran­ted if:

a.

the ap­plic­ant or an ex­pert ap­poin­ted by the ap­plic­ant (Art. 16) has the ne­ces­sary qual­i­fic­a­tions;

b.

the en­ter­prise has an ap­pro­pri­ate num­ber of ex­perts at its dis­pos­al;

c.

the ap­plic­ant and the ex­perts en­sure safe op­er­a­tion;

d.

the en­ter­prise has ad­equate li­ab­il­ity in­sur­ance;

e.

the in­stall­a­tions and equip­ment are in ac­cord­ance with the cur­rent state of sci­ence and tech­no­logy with re­gard to ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion;

f.

ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion is as­sured in ac­cord­ance with this Act and the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

¹ The li­cence shall only be val­id for the des­ig­nated en­ter­prise or the des­ig­nated per­son.

² It shall con­tain a de­scrip­tion of the li­censed activ­ity, in­clud­ing any re­quire­ments and stip­u­la­tions, and give the names of the ex­perts re­spons­ible for ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion. It shall be gran­ted for a lim­ited peri­od.

³ The li­cens­ing au­thor­ity may trans­fer the li­cence to a new hold­er, provided the lat­ter meets the con­di­tions spe­cified in Art­icle 31.

The li­cence shall be mod­i­fied:

a.

at the hold­er’s re­quest, if the pro­posed modi­fic­a­tion meets the con­di­tions for the grant­ing of a li­cence;

b.

auto­mat­ic­ally, where this is ne­ces­sit­ated by changes in the ac­tu­al or leg­al con­di­tions spe­cified in Art­icle 31.

¹ The li­cence shall be re­voked:

a.

if the con­di­tions for grant­ing it are not met or are no longer met;

b.

if a stip­u­la­tion as­so­ci­ated with the li­cence or a meas­ure ordered has not been com­plied with des­pite no­tice be­ing giv­en.

² The li­cence shall ex­pire:

a.

if it is duly re­lin­quished by the hold­er;

b.

at the end of the spe­cified term;

c.

if the hold­er dies or, in the case of leg­al per­sons and re­gistered com­pan­ies, the entry in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister is de­leted;

d.

if the en­ter­prise is dis­con­tin­ued or own­er­ship is trans­ferred.

³ The li­cens­ing au­thor­ity shall is­sue a de­cree de­clar­ing the li­cence to have ex­pired, sub­ject to the pos­sib­il­ity of re­new­al or a trans­fer in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 32 para­graph 3.

¹ The li­cence hold­er must no­ti­fy the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity:

a.

of any pro­posed modi­fic­a­tions to the struc­ture or op­er­a­tion of in­stall­a­tions or equip­ment which could ad­versely af­fect op­er­a­tion­al safety;

b.

of any plans to use ad­di­tion­al ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances or to in­crease the activ­ity of li­censed ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances.

² The li­cence hold­er and per­sons work­ing for the en­ter­prise must provide in­form­a­tion to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity and its agents, al­low them to con­sult doc­u­ments and grant ac­cess to the premises in­so­far as this is ne­ces­sary for the ful­fil­ment of su­per­vis­ory re­spons­ib­il­it­ies.

³ If an in­ad­miss­ible ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure is sus­pec­ted or known to have oc­curred, the li­cence hold­er or ex­pert must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies im­me­di­ately.

¹ Any­one who handles ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances or equip­ment and art­icles con­tain­ing ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances is re­quired to keep re­cords there­of.

² Re­ports are to be sub­mit­ted reg­u­larly to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may waive the re­cord-keep­ing re­quire­ments for low-level ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies.

² The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity shall is­sue the ne­ces­sary de­crees. If ne­ces­sary, it may take pro­tect­ive meas­ures at the ex­pense of the party re­spons­ible. In par­tic­u­lar, it may or­der the dis­con­tinu­ation of op­er­a­tions or the seizure of dan­ger­ous sub­stances, equip­ment or art­icles.

³ It may en­gage third parties for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of in­spec­tions. Their re­spons­ib­il­it­ies un­der crim­in­al and prop­erty law are defined by the Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958²³; with re­gard to du­ties of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and testi­mony, they are bound by the reg­u­la­tions ap­plic­able for fed­er­al of­fi­cials.

¹ Once a li­cence is re­voked or has ex­pired, the sources of risk must be re­moved by the former li­cence hold­er or the party re­spons­ible for them. In par­tic­u­lar:

a.

ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances are to be trans­ferred to an­oth­er li­cence hold­er or dis­posed of as ra­dio­act­ive waste;

b.

in­stall­a­tions and equip­ment cap­able of emit­ting ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation are to be trans­ferred to an­oth­er li­cence hold­er or placed in a con­di­tion ren­der­ing un­au­thor­ised op­er­a­tion im­possible.

² If ne­ces­sary, the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies shall take over or seize sub­stances, in­stall­a­tions, equip­ment and art­icles and shall re­move the sources of risk at the li­cence hold­er’s ex­pense.

³ The li­cens­ing au­thor­ity shall de­term­ine wheth­er premises with con­tam­in­ated or ac­tiv­ated areas and their sur­round­ings may be used for oth­er pur­poses.

⁴ The li­cens­ing au­thor­ity shall is­sue a de­cree de­clar­ing that the sources of risk have been duly re­moved.

¹ Any­one who op­er­ates equip­ment or car­ries out activ­it­ies in­volving an ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation haz­ard shall be li­able for any res­ult­ant dam­age un­less it can be demon­strated that all due care was ex­er­cised to avoid the dam­age.

² Where two or more per­sons are li­able un­der para­graph 1, they shall be jointly and sev­er­ally li­able.

³ The above is without pre­ju­dice to the Con­ven­tion of 29 Ju­ly 1960²⁵ on Third Party Li­ab­il­ity in the Field of Nuc­le­ar En­ergy as amended by the Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol of 28 Janu­ary 1964, the Pro­tocol of 16 Novem­ber 1982 and the Pro­tocol of 12 Feb­ru­ary 2004 (the Par­is Con­ven­tion) and the Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Li­ab­il­ity Act of 13 June 2008²⁶ with re­gard to nuc­le­ar dam­age caused by nuc­le­ar fa­cil­it­ies or the trans­port of nuc­le­ar ma­ter­i­als.²⁷

Claims for com­pens­a­tion or re­dress arising from dam­age caused by ion­iz­ing ra­di­ation and not covered by the Par­is Con­ven­tion²⁹ and the Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Li­ab­il­ity Act of 13 June 2008³⁰ shall be time-barred three years after the in­jured party has be­come aware of the dam­age and of the iden­tity of the li­able party, and in any event 30 years after the ces­sa­tion of the det­ri­ment­al ef­fects.

Pro­ceed­ings and leg­al re­course shall be gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968³¹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure and the Fed­er­al Act of 16 Decem­ber 1943³² on the Or­gan­isa­tion of Fed­er­al Justice.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set the fees for:

a.

the grant­ing, trans­fer, modi­fic­a­tion and re­voc­a­tion of li­cences;

b.

the ex­er­cise of su­per­vi­sion and the per­form­ance of in­spec­tions;

c.

the col­lec­tion, con­di­tion­ing, stor­age and dis­pos­al of ra­dio­act­ive waste.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully sub­jects someone to mani­festly un­jus­ti­fied ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.³⁴

² Any per­son who wil­fully sub­jects an­oth­er to mani­festly un­jus­ti­fied ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure with the in­ten­tion of dam­aging that per­son’s health shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing ten years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.³⁵

³ Any per­son who neg­li­gently sub­jects an­oth­er to mani­festly un­jus­ti­fied ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.³⁶

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully:³⁸

a.

stores, dis­poses of or dis­charges ra­dio­act­ive sub­stances to the en­vir­on­ment in con­tra­ven­tion of the reg­u­la­tions;

b.

sub­jects prop­erty of con­sid­er­able value to mani­festly un­jus­ti­fied ra­di­ation ex­pos­ure with the in­ten­tion of im­pair­ing its util­ity,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² If the of­fend­er ac­ted neg­li­gently, the pen­alty shall be a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 180 daily pen­alty units.³⁹

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully or neg­li­gently:⁴⁰

a.⁴¹

car­ries out acts re­quir­ing a li­cence without hav­ing a li­cence, ob­tains a li­cence il­leg­ally, or fails to com­ply with con­di­tions or stip­u­la­tions in­cluded in the li­cence;

b.

fails to take the meas­ures re­quired to com­ply with dose lim­its;

c.

fails to un­der­go pre­scribed do­si­metry;

d.

fails to ful­fil the du­ties of a li­cence hold­er or ex­pert;

e.

fails to ful­fil the duty to sur­render ra­dio­act­ive waste or re­move sources of risk;

f.

in­fringes an im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tion, in­fringe­ment of which is de­clared to be pun­ish­able, or an or­der ad­dressed to him or her with ref­er­ence be­ing made to the pen­alty provided for in this Art­icle,

shall be li­able to a fine.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for fines not ex­ceed­ing 20,000 Swiss francs for in­fringe­ments of reg­u­la­tions is­sued to deal with danger arising from ra­dio­activ­ity.⁴²

¹ The spe­cial pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁴³ (Arts. 14–18) on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law are ap­plic­able.

² Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply to the con­tra­ven­tions spe­cified in Art­icle 43.

¹ The felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours spe­cified in Art­icles 43 and 43a shall be sub­ject to fed­er­al crim­in­al jur­is­dic­tion.⁴⁴

² In­fringe­ments un­der Art­icle 44 and Art­icle 45 para­graph 1 shall be pro­sec­uted and ad­ju­dic­ated by the com­pet­ent li­cens­ing or su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity. Pro­ceed­ings shall be gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁴⁵ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall be re­spons­ible for en­force­ment and shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

² It may del­eg­ate to the com­pet­ent De­part­ment or sub­or­din­ate bod­ies the task of is­su­ing ra­di­olo­gic­al pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions for activ­it­ies re­quir­ing a li­cence un­der the Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Act of 21 March 2003⁴⁶. It shall take ac­count of the scope of such reg­u­la­tions.⁴⁷

³ It may in­volve the can­tons for pur­poses of en­force­ment.⁴⁸

…⁴⁹

For li­ab­il­ity claims that arose un­der cur­rent le­gis­la­tion but are not yet time-barred when this Act com­mences, the lim­it­a­tion peri­ods spe­cified in Art­icle 40 ap­ply.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Oc­to­ber 1994⁵⁰