Quality Performance-Based Training Enhances Safe and Effective Transport Operations

A great deal of time, effort, and money is expended in the United States each year to achieve safety in transporting radioactive materials. Many of these resources go into research and development and technology programs that ultimately lead to sophisticated transport packages that will not release their contents under severe accident conditions. Statistics support the fact that the U.S. packaging systems are safe. There are only a few instances of minor radioactive material releases on record, and there bas never been a fatality or serious injury attributed to the radioactive nature of the material being transported. The resources allocated to packaging have been well spent to achieve this safety record. With these quality packagings, the nuclear industry has essentially eliminated the potential for major physical consequence to the public or to the environment resulting from the radioactive nature of the material being transported.