EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS DURING RM SHIPMENT BY AIR. EXPERIENCE AND PROSPECTS

The incidents and accidents occurred during the radioactive material shipment almost never result in elimination of radiation accident consequences. For the whole period of radioactive material transportation by air there have been just a few such accidents all over the world. Nevertheless due to the specific vision to any air crash, it is extremely important to ensure and demonstrate guarantees in timely response actions on air crash elimination during radioactive material shipment. This issue is rather complicated because the air crash can happen in a country that has no regular emergency radiological team. This paper realizes an analysis of experience in preparation and shipment of high-activity radioactive materials, such as spent fuel from research reactor, by air towards assurance of emergency preparedness in the framework of Russian and U.S. Research Reactor Fuel Return Program (RRRFR). It also describes the capabilities of relevant existing emergency preparedness systems and some suggestions for international cooperation on this issue.