Radioactive sources provide a huge benefit to humanity by being used in many areas such as agriculture, industry, medicine and research. But if they are not controlled properly and are used maliciously, they can cause serious consequences such as permanent injuries. Therefore, these sources should be conrolled
safely and securely. The first international conference devoted to the safety and security of radioactive materials was held in Dijon, France, in September 1998 and the conference emphasized the necessity of control systems to prevent, detect and respond to the illicit trafficking of radioactive materials. Since then, international societies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been making earnest efforts to prevent losing control of the radioactive sources, and to minimize the consequences of their malicious use. As a result of that, Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources (hereafter referred to as the ‘Code of Conduct’) was published by the IAEA in March 2001. The IAEA also published the Guidance on the Management of Disused Radioactive Sources as a supplementary guidance to the Code of Conduct and the implementing guide on the security of radioactive sources such as IAEA Nuclear Security Series No.11. In light of the growing importance of this subject, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) of Korea revised the Rule of Technical Standards of Radiation Safety Management and
enacted the Public Notice of Security Management of Radioactive Source in 2015 to demonstrate international commitment. In this paper, the status of the radioactive material security management of Korea and its actual applications were analyzed by comparing them to the IAEA’s publications that are related to the security of radioactive sources. Based on the results, directions on how to improve the current security regulation are suggested.