RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL TRANSPORT SECURITY - Awareness and application of new recommendations –

Transport of radioactive material is highly regulated and the transport safety regulations have been in effect for decades. Transport security recommendations for many types of radioactive material have just been developed and applied, and the potential impact on transport operations is significant. While the security measures and definition of high consequence radioactive material added to the Model Regulations were recognized as a very positive step, the IAEA initiated a review of these provisions to ensure they were technically sound and consistent with other approaches used in nuclear and radioactive material security. A series of consultants meetings and technical meetings were held between October 2003 and January 2006 to review the transport security provisions and develop guidance to assist Member States in implementing appropriate measures. The recommendations of the “Technical Meeting to Review Guidance for Security in the Transport of Radioactive Material”, convened during 23-27 January 2006 at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, provided a good summary of the conclusions of this series of meetings. Several significant steps have been taken in defining appropriate security measures to apply during transport and these are reflected in the IAEA guide “Security of Radioactive Material during Transport” that can be subsequently adopted by countries and international transport modal organizations. However, there is still much to be accomplished before transport security is on par with transport safety. This paper briefly describes the development and implementation of security recommendations, some problem areas identified by shippers and carriers, and offers a few suggestions for successfully accomplishing improvements while minimizing the overall impact of new security recommendations. This paper briefly describes the development and implementation of the IAEA security recommendations, some problem areas identified by shippers and carriers, and offers a few suggestions for successfully accomplishing improvements while minimizing the overall impact of new security requirements.