Shipments of Teletherapy Units From Hospitals to Disposal by Special Arrangement

The Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (RAM) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safety Series No.6 ( 1990) establish safety standards whose application provides an adequate level of protection to person, property, and the environment against the risks deriving from the use of ionizing radiation sources. Despite a quite rigid scheme of the Regulations, which establish provisions for the transport of RAM linked to the kind of material (LSA, SCO, special form, fissile), to the activity, and consequently to the type of packaging adequate for the shipment, a flexible tool is represented by the possibility to transpot1 RAM under special arrangement. This paper intends to illustrate the role of the Italian competent authority regarding the request to carry out some shipments of teletherapy units from hospitals to a waste disposal under special arrangement. Moreover the intention of the paper is to point out some difficulties met with the application of the criteria of the \" equivalent safety \"as stated in para. 21 I of the Safety Series No.6 1985 Edition (As Amended 1990).