Why does the Act have emergency powers?
The Act contains emergency powers to ensure that the government has the ability to respond to radiation incidents involving the release or potential release of radiation from a radiation source that poses a serious risk to the health or safety of persons or the environment. Incidents could arise in a number of ways including the spill of radioactive material inside a building or during transport. Emergency powers that may need to be exercised include the need to detain a person for the purposes of decontaminating that person where they have been contaminated with radioactive material to ensure that they do not pose a danger to other persons. The Act provides for safeguards to the abuse of this power including that the use of the power must be authorised by the Secretary to the Department of Human Services. In practice, this power has been delegated to a senior officer of the Department to ensure that immediate response is available to deal quickly with incidents. The Department of Huma
