A Regulatory Approach to the Safe Transport of Plutonium by Air

The safety of the transport of radioactive material presenting a high level of potential danger is based upon several lines of defence, a principle widely applied in nuclear safety : - reliability of the conveyance, which partially conditions the probability of an accident, - package design, which ensures safety functions are fulfilled in case of an accident, - emergency planning to protect the public and the environment, should packages be damaged in an accident. In the case of air transport, a strict application of regulatory requirements, as laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), following IAEA recommendations, does not ensure that the second line of defence, the package design, is efficient enough . This is because the safety standards used for mul timodal approval of package designs cover only a small fraction of conditions likely to be encountered in an aircraft accident.