Message from the President

The Twelfth International Conference on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM'98) is held in Paris from 10th to 15th May 1998, under the patronage of French Ministries of Industry and Environment. Industrialists, public authorities, researchers, all those concerned by these subjects, will have an opportunity to share and compare their experiences and approaches to radioactive material transportation issues, as they have done every three years in the past. Following the request for papers, more than three hundred proposals for papers were received by the PATRAM'98 Co-ordination Committee. An international selection committee, which met for three days in June, ascertained the quality of the papers and defined the main outline of the program proposed in this document. Study of this program demonstrates that the main issues brought to bear by society are obviously close to the concerns of the actors actually involved in radioactive substance transportation. One and a half days, therefore, will be devoted to papers on various aspects of transportation by sea of radioactive materials, particularly reprocessed material: the safety of packages, ships, impact in the event of an accident, acceptance by the public. The problem area of transportation of radioactive materials by sea will be introduced in the plenary session.