The recommendations of this Standard shall be applicable to all operations with fissionable nuclides outside nuclear reactors. The materials to which the Standard and the referenced literature primarily refer are the isotopes of uranium of masses 233 and 235 and the isotope of plutonium of mass 239. Although there are other nuclides that fission, these three do so most readily and constitute the greatest potential hazard.
This Standard does not cover the design of process equipment, shipping containers, etc., beyond the dimensions and capacities necessary for nuclear safety as specified in the references (see 6, Procedural Guides). The integrity of all equipment in the use for which it is designed is assumed. The Standard does not refer per se to the details of any of the procedures for the use of fissionable materials or to processing methods. It does concern limitations which must be imposed on such processes and equipment because of the unique nuclear properties of these materials by which they can support nuclear chain reactions.
This Standard does not refer explicitly to the effects of radiation on man or materials or to the sources of such radiation, either natural or the result of nuclear chain reactions.