THE SYSTEM FOR THE TRANSPORT OF RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS IN FRANCE.

Radiopharmaceutical products transported in Type A packages are used for in vivo examinations and for in vitro radiodiagnosis carried out in nuclear medicine services and research laboratories. The activities are low and spread over more than 200 000 packages sent all over France. First, the quantity of radiopharmaceutical products used and their distribution are described, after which there is a description of two aspects of the transport system - conditioning and transport - on the basis of the experience of the Qris..lndustrie Company, which is both the biggest French producer and leading company in the French market. Mention is also made of the unpact of the ICRP recommendations and the regulations prevailing in France on the design of packaging, dispatch and storage facilities and on handling and transport practices. Each type of transport, by road, rail or air, serves a specific geographical area; hence the importance of one type over the others in terms of the quantities transported or the number of kilometres covered can easily be worked out. The last part of the paper is devoted to the evaluation of risks under normal conditions. At present, the number of transport incidents or accidents is very small and there is no point in making any statistical analysis of them. There is a good record of dosimetric surveys on external radiation exposure of handling and transport personnel: the collective dose equivalent for workers involved in France in transport activities is about 0.42 man·Sv per year. However, as far as the public is concerned, there is need for a large number of assumptions in order to evaluate the exposures resulting mainly from urban road transport: the collective dose equivalent for the public resulting from the transport of unsealed sources for medical purposes probably lies between 0.01 man·Sv and 0.1 man·Sv per year.