Transport of radioactive materials
... reviews the measures in place to ensure safe
transport of radioactive materials.
Radioactive materials
are routinely transported all around the world by air, sea, road and rail.
These materials include those associated
with the nuclear fuel cycle — from uranium ores to spent fuel and radioactive
waste — but also radionuclides for nuclear medicine and research, and
radioactive sources for industry and radiotherapy.
Although the safety record
of these transports is excellent, they sometimes cause concern in the areas
through which they pass.
For example, a number of countries have expressed
particular concern about ships carrying radioactive waste passing through
or close to their territorial waters.
Regulations are, therefore, needed not just to ensure that the chances of
an accident, which could result in radioactive material being dispersed
in the environment, are kept to a minimum, but also to ensure that the workers
involved in transport — including those loading and unloading shipments
as well as drivers/pilots — are protected.
Because much of this transport
is international, transport safety was one of the first areas in which the
IAEA developed safety standards.
The IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport
of Radioactive Material were first published in 1961 and have been revised
periodically since.
