An Introduction to IAEA Safety Series No. 112: \"Compliance Assurance for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material\"

This paper will endeavour to introduce and briefly explore the IAEA's Safety Series No 112 \"Compliance Assurance for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material\" in order to acquaint more people in the transport world with its existence and purpose. Future influences and developments in compliance assurance will be briefly looked at. The 1985 Edition of the IAEA's Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (IAEA 1990) reinforced the requirement placed on Competent Authorities to establish Compliance Assurance (CA) programmes that aim to ensure that the Regulations are actually met in practice. A number of Member States subsequently requested help from the IAEA in fulfilling this requirement. As a response, in 1994 the IAEA published as a Safety Practice, an important new Safety Series No 112 (IAEA 1994), which addressed the subject of Compliance Assurance for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material. Safety Series No 112 was intended to be a useful book for all Member States and their Competent Authorities. Not only should it serve as a guide or manual for the newly created or existing Competent Authority responsible for a relatively small transport industry, but also be helpful to the more well-est~blished authorities with large or wide-ranging Radioactive Material (RAM) transport industries to regulate. The book was also intended to be helpful to users of the Regulations in their interactions with Competent Authorities. The book is not mandatory for Competent Authorities or their industries, but it nevertheless brings together many recommendations and examples of good Compliance Assurance practice which should not be ignored.