Year
1998
File Attachment
1566.PDF1.47 MB
Abstract
IAEA Safety Series 6, 1985 Edition (amended 1990) states that \"Radioactive material shall mean any material having a specific activity greater than 70kBqlkg\". The new 1996 regulations now defines radioactive material as any material with specific activity and total activity greater than radionuclide dependent values given in the regulations. The values of activity concentrations mainly range from 1 to 100 Bq/g and total activity from 103 to 107 Bq. As these values are radionuclide dependent·and generally lower than 70 Bq/g, their implementation for transport practices may give rise to changes in the present management of transport as well as measurement procedures. However, the 70 Bq/g value was for all radionuclides present while the new radionuclide specific values are for parent radionuclides and include the contribution from daughter radionuclides. In this context, the aim of this paper is to present the evaluation of the main impacts arising from the implementation of the new exemption regulation. This evaluation is perfonned within the framework of a project funded by the European Commission involving different teams from France, United Kingdom and Germany. For this evaluation, the following steps were developed on the basis of the different national contexts: • Analysis of the exemption concept in the national transport regulation • Identification of the transport practices affected by the modification of the regulations • Evaluation of the practical implication for selected practices Special attention will be given to transport practices involving natural radionuclides in different European countries, as well as material originating from the decommissioning of nuclear installations.