How to Licence a Radioactive Source in Qatar: The Full Sequence
September 15, 2026
8 min read
DITEC Experts, Radiation Protection Team, ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting
The licence is the starting point, not the paperwork at the end
In Qatar no radioactive source may be imported, possessed, used, stored or transported without a licence from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. Article 6 of Decree-Law No. 31 of 2002 makes the licence a precondition of the activity rather than a formality that follows it, and Article 10 sets the penalty for operating without one at imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to QAR 200,000, or both.
Most of the delay companies experience does not come from the Ministry. It comes from files submitted in the wrong order — a licence requested before the storage facility exists, or before anyone in the company holds a personal licence to handle the source. The sequence below is the one that works.
Four decisions to settle before you open a file
Everything in the application follows from four decisions. Settling them first is what separates a file that is approved from one that is returned:
- The source itself: radionuclide, activity, physical form, sealed or unsealed, and the supplier’s certificate. A licence is issued for a specific source, not for a category of sources.
- The practice: industrial radiography, nuclear density gauging, well logging, medical imaging, therapy or research. The practice determines the controls the Ministry expects to see.
- The location: where the source will be used, and where it will be stored between uses. A store that has had no shielding assessment cannot support a licence application.
- The people: who will hold the personal licence required by Article 6, and who will be appointed radiation protection officer under Article 8.
The shielding assessment comes before the licence
A radioactive source needs somewhere to live. Before the Ministry licences the source it has to be satisfied that the room, pit or container holding it keeps dose rates outside within the limits — for the workers, and for anyone who simply passes nearby.
That assurance comes from a shielding assessment: source activity and energy, the occupancy of every adjacent space, the build-up of walls, floor and ceiling, and the resulting dose rates at the boundary, calculated against NCRP and IAEA methodology. It is prepared and signed by a licensed expert, and it is the document most often missing when an application stalls.
What the file contains
The exact set varies with the practice, but a complete file is built from the same elements:
- Commercial registration, trade licence and establishment card of the applicant company.
- Full technical specification of the source and of the device containing it, with the supplier’s certificate.
- The shielding assessment for the store and, where relevant, for the working area.
- Drawings of the facility showing the storage location and the occupancy of the spaces around it.
- The radiation protection programme: written procedures for handling, storage, transport, access control and emergencies.
- The appointment of the radiation protection officer, with the personal licence that supports it.
- Personal licences and training records for every worker who will handle the source.
- Arrangements for dosimetry, leak testing, source accounting, and eventual disposal or return to the supplier.
Import and transport
A source that is not yet in the country needs an import approval before it ships. Customs clearance of radioactive material is not a routine declaration: the consignment is released against the Ministry’s approval, and a shipment that arrives ahead of that approval stays where it lands.
Transport inside Qatar carries its own requirements: package classification and labelling, the vehicle and its markings, the route, and a driver trained for radioactive consignments. The Ministry has publicly reminded companies that vehicles carrying radioactive sources are not to be left standing in public places.
Submission is now digital
In May 2025 the Ministry launched a digital radiation licensing system carrying more than sixty services, from application through to approval, with live tracking of where a file stands. Around 3,300 radiation licences had been issued in the two years before it launched, which is the scale the Department handles.
The practical effect is that an incomplete file is now visibly incomplete. What used to be a submission with no answer is a status, and the missing document is named. The system rewards a file assembled properly before it is opened.
Frequently asked questions
Can we apply for the licence while the store is still being built?
You can prepare the file, but the licence attaches to a facility the Ministry can assess. In practice the shielding assessment and the drawings have to describe what will actually exist, and an inspection follows before the source is brought in.
Does every worker need a personal licence, or only the radiation protection officer?
Article 6 requires a licence for working with ionising radiation, not only for occupying a position of responsibility. The officer’s licence is additional to the licences of the people who operate the source, not a substitute for them.
We are renting equipment with a source inside it — do we still need a licence?
Yes. The obligation follows possession and use, not ownership. A hired gauge or radiography camera in your custody is a source in your possession.
What happens at renewal?
The Department sets the validity period of each licence and reviews the file when it is renewed: dose records, source inventory, leak test results, training, and the standing of the appointed officer. A renewal is a re-examination, not a formality.
References
Written by the radiation protection experts of ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting (DITEC), Doha, Qatar — a licensed training centre whose experts hold personal licences issued by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. Last reviewed 14 September 2026.
- Decree-Law No. 31 of 2002 on Radiation Protection (State of Qatar) — Articles 6, 7, 8 and 10.
- Resolution No. 4 of 2003 promulgating the Executive Bylaw of Law No. 31 of 2002.
- Radiation Protection Department, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change — published functions, including evaluation of permit applications, inspection, and setting licence durations.
- Ministry of Environment and Climate Change — digital radiation licensing system, launched 8 May 2025.
- IAEA General Safety Requirements Part 3, Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards.