A METHOD OF ASSESSMENT OF DOSE RESULTING FROM AN ACCIDENT INVOLVING A MULTIPLE-PACKAGE SHIPMENT

Methods are available for the assessment of radiation dose resulting from an accident involving a shipment of radioactive material. This paper considers a shipment of Type A packages transported in a van from the supplier of radioisotopes to users. If the vehicle transporting many such packages encounters an accident, the radiological consequence would depend upon the severity of the accident, the number of packages damaged, the package failure fraction, the nature and quantity of the radioactive contents, the weather conditions and the nature of occupancy around. The impact of the accident would be distributed among the packages resulting in different failure fractions. An attempt is made to develop a method to predict the dose resulting from such an accident and identify the data required for making such an assessment.