The transport of dangerous goods is submitted to various regulations. These can be international, national or regional and they can differ from country to country. The basis for the regulations for dangerous goods can be found in the "Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods", issued by the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous goods (Orange Book). For radioactive material the "Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material", issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), are applied. The UN recommendations provide for 9 classes of dangerous goods. With regard to Class 7, specifically related to the transport of radioactive material (special recommendation relating to class 70, the IAEA regulations are referred to. These IAEA regulations for their part provide for 13 schedules, varying between weakly and highly radioactive. The radioactive sources which are used for non-destructive testing or for medical purposes are mostly sealed sources, i. e. the radioactive material is contained in a metallic shell. According to the nature of the isotope and their activity, the sources are transported either in industrial packagings, type A or type B packagings. According to the mode of transport, either air, sea, rail or road, various specific rules are applied, which however, are fortunately nearly completely harmonized. Special attention is paid to radiation protection, heat removal and the testing and fabrication of packagings. As a general rule, the safety of transport is based on the safety of the packagings, i. e. their ability to maintain, even in accident conditions, their capacity of tightness, shielding against radiation and removing the heat generated by the transported material.
Publication Source: Trends in NDE Science & Technology; Proceedings of the 14th World Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, New Delhi, 8-13 December 1996.Vol. 5, pages 59 - 60 Publisher:Ashgate Publishing Company
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