A Survey of the Transport of Radioactive Materials by Air to, from and within the UK

Radioactive materials are frequently transported overseas by air for medical and industrial purposes. Among the advantages of this mode of transport is that urgent delivery is often required because some radionuclides are short lived. There are also a limited number of shipments by air within the UK. Scheduled passenger services or freightonly aircraft may be used. Packages of radioactive materials are transported in aircraft holds at recommended segregation distances from areas occupied by passengers and crew. Many workers are involved in air transport and it is necessary to have procedures in place to minimise their exposure to ionising radiation. The IAEA Transport Regulations [1] form the basis for instructions governing the transport of radioactive materials issued by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) – \"Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air\" [2]. Regulations for the transport of radioactive materials by air in the UK are made by the Department for Transport (DfT) and enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Paragraph 304 of the IAEA Transport Regulations [1] requires that “The relevant competent authority shall arrange for periodic assessments of the radiation doses to persons due to the transport of radioactive material, to ensure that the system of protection and safety complies with the Basic Safety Standards [3]”. As a result of this the DfT arranges for surveys to be carried out on the transport of radioactive materials by each mode of transport – air, sea, road and rail. The National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) has carried out a series of these surveys over the past 20 years, as shown in Table 1, the most recent of which concerned the transport of radioactive materials by air [4], which is the subject of this paper. The IAEA Transport Safety Appraisal Service (TranSAS) highlighted the commissioning of these reports as an area of good practice [5]. Such studies can serve as a model for other competent authorities in the radioactive material transport sector.