What nuclear regulation actually looks like in Georgia
Georgia operates no nuclear power plants and conducts no activity in nuclear power generation; accordingly, nuclear regulation in the country means, in practice, the licensing and permit regime for radiation safety — the instruments placed in the Georgian Law on Licences and Permits. The detailed rules of nuclear and radiation safety are governed by separate legislation, but the legal basis of this page is precisely those norms of the Law on Licences and Permits that establish the respective licence and permits. This approach yields an accurate picture: what actually exists in the country is an authorization system with three layers — an activity licence, permits related to materials, and a construction permit for facilities.
The nuclear and radiation activity licence
Article 6 of the Law on Licences and Permits lists the types of activity licences, and item 3 of that list is the licence for nuclear and radiation activity. This is the basic authorization for any person working with radioactive substances or nuclear technologies — from medicine to industry. The licence is the legal basis for carrying on the activity, and without it such activity is impermissible. For an organization entering this field, the activity licence is the first document to obtain and the foundation on which every subsequent operational permit is built.
Permits related to radioactive material
In the list of permits of Article 24 of the law, several items are devoted to radioactive materials. The list provides for the acquisition of radioactive material within the country — this operation occupies its own position in the catalogue. A separate item covers the import, export and transit of radioactive material, the return of radioactive material to its manufacturer, as well as the import and export of nuclear technologies or know-how. In addition, a permit for the export of radioactive waste is defined separately — the removal of waste across the border requires distinct authorization.
The point of these items is that the international circulation of radioactive material — import, export, transit, return to the manufacturer — and even the cross-border movement of nuclear-technological knowledge stand under state control. For a company working with such materials this means that the activity licence is not the only required document: every cross-border operation must be covered by its own permit.
The structure of the catalogue itself carries meaning. The nuclear and radiation activity licence extends to the activity as a whole, while the permits attach to operations — in practice they complement rather than replace one another. An organization acquiring radioactive material domestically cannot rely on the activity licence alone, since acquisition is stated in the permit catalogue as a separate position. The same logic applies to every cross-border operation: import, export, transit and return to the manufacturer are not covered by a single permit.
Construction of radiological and nuclear facilities
In the block of construction permits the law pays special attention to radiological and nuclear facilities. The ordinary construction permit applies to construction other than that of facilities of special significance, radiological or nuclear facilities; the permit for the construction of facilities of special significance, in turn, does not extend to radiological or nuclear facilities. For them the law establishes a separate, special type — the permit for the construction of radiological or nuclear facilities. This structural separation shows plainly that facilities of this category are subject to the highest licensing requirements, and that an applicant cannot reach the same result through the general construction permit routes.
The special rule for importing radiopharmaceuticals
For the medical field, Article 38(4) of the law is significant: where a person holding authorization for nuclear and radiation activity for the medical use of radioactive substances imports radiopharmaceutical products for medical purposes, only the permit provided by item 10 of Article 24 of the law is issued, for a term of 1 year. This special rule names two requirements at once: the importer must already hold authorization for nuclear and radiation activity for medical use, and its import permit is issued for a strictly limited term — one year — which entails periodic renewal.
The radiopharmaceutical rule reflects the general logic of the regime well: the law here directly links the person's authorization for medical use with the import permit. One does not exist without the other, and the fixed term means that the state periodically re-examines the conditions on which the permit was granted. For a medical facility this means an annual documentary cycle, during which the renewal of the import permit must be planned in advance.
Planning compliance in this regime
For an organization operating in the nuclear-radiation regime, a compliance plan can be written in three layers. The first is the activity licence as the foundation. The second is operational permits: acquisition within the country, import, export, transit, return to the manufacturer, export of waste, and the movement of technologies and know-how. The third is infrastructure proper: when building a new facility, a separate permit for the construction of a radiological or nuclear facility is required — not the ordinary construction permit and not the special-significance facilities permit. Medical-profile organizations must additionally take into account the annual cycle of radiopharmaceutical import permits.
In the Georgian context, where nuclear power does not exist, this regime mainly serves precisely such practical situations: medical diagnostics, the circulation of radiopharmaceuticals, industrial sources, and the management of radioactive waste. A properly built compliance system here means constant control of document expiry dates and advance qualification of every new operation.