Reporting an Incident

Users of radiation must report incidents to the radiation regulator in their state or territory. Find below the contact details of your radiation regulator. Commonwealth departments and agencies should report to ARPANSA. 

When reporting, please ensure that you meet the requirements of your regulatory body. An in-depth investigation and sufficient detail about the incident will assist ARPANSA’s nationwide analysis of incidents. It will also allow us to publish meaningful information about causes and prevention measures that can be used to promote radiation safety throughout Australia. Holistic Safety tools may assist you in identifying the primary and contributory causes of an incident and any measures that may prevent a recurrence.

• Australian Capital Territory: Health Protection Service, Radiation Safety Section
• Victoria: Radiation Safety, Department of Health & Human Services
• New South Wales: Environmental Protection Agency, NSW
• Queensland: Radiation Health Queensland
• Tasmania: Department of Health and Human Services, Radiation Protection
• Western Australia: Radiological Council, Department of Health
• South Australia: Radiation Protection Environmental Protection Agency
• Northern Territory: Radiation Protection, Department of Health
• Commonwealth (Federal): ARPANSA

What happens next?

After receiving an incident report and conducting the required analysis, the regulator submits a report to the ARIR using the web portal provided by ARPANSA:

ARIR web portal

(Please note that a third-party hosting provider created this web portal. Therefore, it has a separate domain name to ARPANSA)  

The reported information does not usually identify individuals or workplaces. Where this occasionally happens, it is recorded and maintained in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and is not used in any ARPANSA publication.

The information reported to the ARIR is analysed with the assistance of experts in incident and accident investigation and in human and organisational factors. The analysis aims to identify the primary and contributory causes and identify any patterns, trends or actions which could help prevent these types of incidents happening in the future. These learnings are shared through a variety of means including annual summary reports and safety alerts.