Grandfathering of Competent Authority Approved Packages

International Atomic Energy Agency transportation regulations are reviewed and revised on a periodic basis as new technical and scientific information becomes available. The 1996 Edition of the Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials in TS-R-1 includes provisions for the use of package designs approved to previous editions of the regulations. This assures that there is no disruption of transport when the regulations are updated and revised. The revision of package design standards may make certain designs obsolete, though not necessarily unsafe. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the agency in the United States that certifies transportation packages for Type B and fissile materials. NRC regulations include grandfathering provisions that are comparable to and compatible with the IAEA standards. NRC staff is promoting a new system that would eliminate the need to grandfather package designs. Under the new method, any new or revised provision of the regulations that affects package standards would include its own transitional arrangements. In this way, each change would be evaluated for its safety importance. Changes in the package standards that are important to safety would be implemented immediately upon the regulations coming into force. Other changes, that do not significantly affect safety, would have longer implementation periods. In this way, all packages in use would be compatible with the regulations in force, and no specific grandfathering provisions for older designs would be needed. NRC staff has concluded that the package design standards are mature and have been shown to be protective over the past 40 years of shipping experience. We predict that future changes in package design standards will not be substantive in terms of resulting in significant changes in physical performance of a package in transport, including actual transportation accidents. The benefits of the new system would be a more predictable regulatory structure for the use of packages that would minimize administrative regulatory burden.