LSA/SCO Provisions in IAEA Safety Series No.6: Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material

Abstract

The first edition of the IAEA Transport Regulations was published in May 1961, just four years after the Agency was formed, and two years after the United Nations asked it to develop transport regulations. The Low Specific Activity radioactive material provisions in that first edition were based on existing US Interstate Commerce Commsssion regulaiions and the International Convention Concerning the Carriage of Goods by Rail. Thirty years later much of the original provisions are still in force, with additions related to transport of contaminated objects and solidified wastes. A number of significant changes have occurred through four major revisions of the regulations, some considered good, and some bad. Somehow, however, experience with the regulations filters out the bad and preserves the good. The result is that, considering the decisions of the most recent Technical Committee meeting in October 1993, the IAEA Transport Regulations should be, for the most part, effcient, effective, and defendable. The major decision of the recent Technical Committee to extend the concept of Surface Contaminated Objects to include objects which are themselves radioactive, recognises the need for efficient transport of wastes from decommissioning facilities. The decision to require Type A packages for transpott of LSA-II, LSA-III, and CO-II materials is a major step toward simplification. The major decision to retain the existing Type B package and all its criteria for transpott of LSA/CO material avoids the complication of having yet another Type B package. The major decision, to make the consignor responsible for imposing vehicle limits on shipments of LSA/CO, by either shipping under exclusive use or providing quantity information to the carrier in terms of a multiple of A2, makes that segment of the regulaiions defendable.