TECHNICAL BASIS FOR TRANSPORT OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS EMERGENCY PLANNING

The transport of radioactive materials is an activity strictly linked with their use in nuclear installations, industry, medicine, agriculture and research. Emergency preparedness in case of an accident is one of the main aspects related to the protection of workers, people and of environment from the risks arising from ionizing radiations during transport. The operational organization of emergency response in Italy relies on government’s local representative, the Prefect. On the basis of national legislation (Legislative Decree n. 230/1995 and Governmental Decree of the 10th February 2006) the Prefect shall adopt a local plan for emergency response prepared by a local Advisory Committee. This Advisory Committee shall take into account the accident scenarios and the evaluation of the radiological consequences contained in a Technical Report, applicable to the whole national territory, issued by ISPRA (National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), which in Italy, among other duties in the field of environmental protection, has the role of Regulatory Body for nuclear activities and Competent Authority for transport of radioactive materials. The paper shows the contents of the Technical Report. The reference accident scenario for emergency planning depends on different factors: mode of transport, nature of accidents, type of materials, shipment and packages, etc. The choice of the reference accident scenarios is based on conservative assumptions and on the statistical analysis of radioactive material transports data available from ISPRA database. The information derived from the data elaboration were used to define the source term associated to the accident scenarios. The results of the evaluations in terms of release of radioactive material and radiological consequences allowed to define the kind of protective measures and actions to be envisaged in the emergency planning. The analysis were performed for all modes of transport and considering both radioactive and fissile materials.