What Should \"Damaged\" Mean in Air Transport of Fissile Packages?

It is likely that the ongoing process to produce the 1996 version of the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials, IAEA Safety Series 6 (SS 6) will result in a more stringent package qualification standard for air transport of large quantities of radioactive materials (RAM) than is included in the 1990 version. During the process to define the scope of the new requirements there was extensive discussion of their impact on, and application to, fissile material package qualification criteria. Since fissile materials are shipped in a variety of packagings ranging from exempt to Type B, each packaging of each type must be evaluated for its ability to maintain subcriticality both alone and in arrays and in both damaged and undamaged condition. In the 1990 version of SS 6 \"damaged\" means the condition of a package after it had undergone the \"tests for demonstrat.ing the ability to withstand accident conditions in transport,\" i.e., Type B qualification tests. These test conditions are typical of severe accidents in surface modes, but are less severe than air mode qualification test environments to be applied to Type C packages. As a result, questions arose about the need for a corresponding change in the 1996 SS 6 to define \"damaged\" to include the Type C test regime for criticality evaluations of fissile packages in air transport.