CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

VICTORIA V. ROMANOVA CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ Issues related to nuclear medicine were also on the agenda of the Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology held on November 28, 2018, in the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. The conference was attended by more than 1,000 people from 135 IAEA member- states, including more than 60 participants were at the level of ministers and their deputies. In his speech, Yukiya Amano, IAEA Director General, noted that the importance of nuclear technologies in the development of the society is often underestimated due to the lack of technical competence of the general public. Therefore, it is necessary arrange activities aiming at the raising of public awareness of the possibilities of the peaceful atom and to directly incorporate this work into national development programs. 7 Considering that these data, like the technologies themselves, are in demand regardless of national borders, unified rules to the content of the legal framework of radioisotope products, the procedure for construction and operation of nuclear medicine centers, the rights and obligations of persons undergoing diagnostics and treatment, and health care professionals, and the powers of state bodies and international organizations also appear extremely important. 3. Current State of International Legal Framework of Nuclear Medicine There is currently no unified international legal act regulating relations in the field of nuclear medicine. Legal analysis of materials posted by the IAEA, available research and reports makes it possible to conclude that the relations arising in the field of nuclear medicine including: relations in connection with design, construction, and operation of the nuclear medicine centers, in connection with manufacture of radioisotope equipment for diagnostics and treatment, in connection with production and registration of radioisotope products, their supply and transportation in domestic markets and for export, in connection with production of radiopharmaceuticals, in connection with provision of services for diagnostics and treatment, relations in connection with training of specialized health care workforce and provision of educational services. These relations arise between companies producing isotope products, diagnostic equipment and radiopharmaceuticals, and medical institutions, between medical institutions that carry out diagnostics and treatment, and patients, between companies, medical institutions and authorized state bodies and organizations that perform state regulation and control in the field of nuclear medicine. Certain aspects of legal regulation of nuclear medicine were studied in the works by A.I. Ioyrysh. In his work The Concept of Nuclear Law , A.I. Ioyrysh draws attention to the fact that national laws and international conventions on nuclear energy differentiate their approaches to the types of liability for damage caused by radioactive substances from nuclear devices and for damage arising from radioactive substances outside the nuclear device (liability for radioisotopes), and notes that the opinions of scientists differ as some believe that the rules on civil liability for nuclear damage should be applied to damage caused by radioisotopes since the laboratory work is as dangerous as the work at the reactors, while other scientists think that liability for damage caused by isotopes should not go beyond the general rules on civil liability. A.I. Ioyrysh also mentions that in the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1963, a reservation is made to exclude the radioisotopes that reached the final manufacturing stage for medical use. 8

7 http://www.atomic-energy.ru/news/2018/11/29/90830. 8 IOYRYSH, A.I. Concept of Nuclear Law . Moscow : YuNITI-DANA. 2008. p. 222 (In Russian).

316