REGULATING NON-NUCLEAR TRANSPORT WITHIN GREAT BRITAIN

Within Great Britain, there are several hundred organisations whose business involves the transport of radioactive material. These include hospitals, industrial radiographers, universities, test laboratories, oil and gas producers, and couriers. Some of these organisations transport small amounts of radioactive material only a few times per year, whereas others transport more significant amounts on a daily basis. In order to ensure that transport is being carried out in as safe a manner as possible, we have had to answer several questions: ? How should we find out what involvement each organisation has with the transport process? ? How should we prioritise which organisations to inspect for compliance with the transport regulations? ? How should we carry out the inspection? ? How can we demonstrate that we are being consistent and reasonable with all organisations? ? How should we deal with non-compliance? ? How can we promote knowledge of the regulations, and improve compliance? This paper explains the process which we have developed and followed, beginning with the requisition of information from the organisations which have a permit or registration to keep radioactive material, through processing the feedback and assessing priorities for inspection, then conducting the actual inspection, resolving non-compliance issues, closing out the inspection and assessing any trends in compliance.