Probabilistic Safety Assessment for Radioactive Material Transport-A Perspective and Example Application from the UK

All the UK legislation to assure the safe transport of radioactive materials (RAM) is closely based on the IAEA Transport Regulations (IAEA 1985). In corrrron with other countries where similar legislation is in place, the UK safety record for both the normal transport of RAM and accident situations is very good (Gelder et al. 1984, and Gelder et al. 1987) . The UK Competent Authority places reliance on the IAEA Transport Regulations to ensure that this record is maintained (Depa.rtrrent of Transport 1988) . What, then, are the reasons for undertaking Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) for UK transport operations? Reasons are advanced in this paper and illustrated with an exanple of work recently undertaken.