SUSTAINING SHIPMENTS

Transport plays an essential role in bringing the benefits of the atom to people the world over. Each day thousands of shipments of radioactive materials are transported on national and international routes. These consignments are essential to many aspects of modern life, from the generation of electricity, to medicine and health, scientific research and agriculture. Maintaining safe, cost-effective transport is essential to support them. Despite an outstanding safety record spanning over 45 years, the transport of radioactive materials cannot and must not be taken for granted. In an era of nuclear expansion, with increased transports required to more destinations, a worrisome trend for global supply is that some shipping companies, air carriers, ports and terminals, have instituted policies of not accepting radioactive materials. Experience has shown that the reasons for delays and denials of shipments are manifold and often have their origin in misperceptions about the nature of the materials and the requirements for their safe handling and carriage. There is growing recognition internationally of the problems created by shipment delays and denials and they now are being addressed in a more proactive way by such organisations as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This paper examines reasons for increasing delays and denials of shipments. It examines the impact delays and denials are having on industry, and describes the various international initiatives to address the problem including industry efforts through the World Nuclear Transport Institute (WNTI). Just as the problems of denial and delay are varied and mulit-layered, so too are the possibilities for responding to them at all levels – international, regional, national and local. A number of suggestions for further action are advanced. These include the need to cast the training net to a wider cross section of stakeholders; moves towards a more harmonised approach by the various authorities within a national jurisdiction; and the need for more regular, collective exchanges within countries between those whose job it is to develop and enforce the regulations and standards for Class 7 transport, and those whose job it is to operate within them. 2 If denials and delays of shipments are to be overcome, then all stakeholders, intergovernmental organisations, national governments and industry must work together, without let up, to exchange experiences, and ideas to develop positive reponses.