A STATUS REPORT ON THE REVIEW AND REVISION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY’S REGULATIONS FOR THE SAFE TRANSPORT OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last published its Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials(Transport Regulations) as Safety Standards Series No. ST-1 in 1996. This document was updated in English with minor editorial revisions in 2000 as TS-R-1 (ST-1, Revised). The IAEA co-operated with International Organizations which regulate the international transport of dangerous goods by the various modes of transport, to have the requirements of the 1996 edition of the IAEA Transport Regulations incorporated into the editions of their regulations which have become effective during 2001. The IAEA Transport Safety Programme is guided by the Transport Safety Standards Committee (TRANSSC), which is a standing body of senior regulatory officials with expertise in radioactive material transport safety. This Committee determined in the mid-1990s that it would be advantageous to modify the review/revision process. To align the IAEA’s Transport Regulations with those of other relevant international bodies, the schedule for revising the regulations needed to change from issuing revisions approximately once every ten years, to once every two years. The goal, under this new schedule, is to publish revisions to TS-R-1 in 2003, and every two years thereafter as needed. Revising the Transport Regulations under this new schedule is well under way. Proposed changes were solicited from IAEA Member States and interested international organizations in early 2000. The first of two revision panels was convened in September 2000. The results of that panel were reviewed by TRANSSC at its meeting in February 2001. A second revision panel will be held in November 2001. The draft revised regulations will be reviewed and endorsed (possibly with changes) by TRANSSC at its March 2002 meeting. If approved by the IAEA’s Board of Governors in September 2002, the revised edition of TS-R-1 will be published during 2003. This will allow the changes to be implemented in the 2005 editions of the modal transport organization’s regulatory documents. This paper will briefly review the revision process and will then provide insight into the changes being considered for the 2003 Edition of TS-R-1.