REVIEW AND AUGMENTATION OF THE INF CODE

The Code for the Safe Carriage of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Plutoniwn and High-Level Radioactive Wastes in Flasks on Board Ships (INF Code) was adopted b} IMO Assembly Resolution A.748(18) (I) in November 1993 as a voluntary code of practice for application by IMO Member States. Its historical development and background has been described in an earlier presentation to PATRAM 95. This paper reports on the latest activities in IMO on the review and augmentation of the INF Code as requested by the eighteenth session of the IMO Assembly and reiterated by its nineteenth session in November 1995. including the outcome of the Special Consultative Meeting (SCM) in March 1996 and the twentieth IMO Assembly in November 1997. As instructed by the eighteenth IMO Assembly, the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) and Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) and their subsidiary bodies concerned undertook work on matters complementary to the INF Code and a progress report was submitted to the nineteenth Assembly, \\hi.ch endorsed the Secretary-General's proposal to convene a Special Consultative Meeting (SCM). The Assembly further approved a resolution on the review of the INF Code (A. 790( 19)) (2), requesting the MSC and MEPC to continue reviewing the INF Code, as a matter of urgency. The resolution specified a nwnber of specific issues to be addressed, which are referred to below.