Year
1990
Abstract
A total revision of the French regulations concerning nuclear materials has been in progress since 1980. Subsequent to the adoption of an act by die French parliament in July 1980, and amended on June 30, 1989 to provide for the commitments regarding the INFCIRC 274 Convention on the physical protection of nuclear materials, decrees and directives have been drawn up by the government and supplemented with more detailed but unpublished technical guidelines. As concerns transportation, the act establishes the principle of responsibility being borne by the carriers under the control of the government. The most recent regulations (published in 1987 and November 1988) relate to air and sea transport. They require carriers to submit plans for the transport of the most sensitive materials (categories I and II). These plans must be such as to enable analysis and assessment of the various arrangements made to ensure the protection of the materials during transport. The paper will concentrate on international transportation, in particular the application of the INFCIRC 274 Convention. It will describe the principal French regulations and will take the opportunity of discussing some options while giving a few indications concerning the technical arrangements which, in the opinion of the authors, are conducive to ensuring proper protection of nuclear materials in transit. In this respect, consideration will be given to the complementarity of the different arrangements: protection and localization for vehicles, real-time monitoring of transport operations, means of giving the alarm and ensuring safe conditions by redundant protection systems. These are associated with safe halting places, arrangements to ensure confidentiality and special requirements concerning the escorts of the convoys and response by security forces.