SOME ASPECTS ON THE HARMONIZATION BETWEEN THE IAEA „REGULATIONS FOR THE SAFE TRANSPORT OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL“ AND THE UN “RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS“

Since 2001 the IAEA “Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material” are directly implemented into the UN “Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods”, Model Regulations (the so called “Orange Book”) as class 7 – radioactive material. At the same time, consistent with the time schedule of the United Nations Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the relevant international modal organisations, a regular review process of the IAEA Transport Regulations intended to issue a revised or amended edition, as necessary, every two years was established. The last published version, the fourteenth revised edition of the “Orange Book” includes the IAEA Transport Regulations, 2005 Edition. However, the IAEA had decided not to publish a 2007 Edition of the Transport Regulations, and as a consequence did not recommend to the UN to implement the changes which had been adopted in the IAEA review cycle 2004-2005. In the last two years further efforts have been made for better harmonization between both documents. The harmonization and assimilation with the UN Model Regulations concerning the transport of all nine classes of dangerous goods brings the class 7 “Radioactive material” in line with the other classes for a worldwide implementation into the national and international modal regulations. The paper will discuss the benefits as well as some problems of this harmonization process. The option to publish the 2009 Edition of the IAEA Transport Regulations with the changes from the review-revision cycle 2004 - 2005 and the harmonization changes with the UN is considered to be important to keep the leading role of the IAEA in the further development of all aspects concerning the safe transport of radioactive material based on their competence in radiation protection.