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Abstract
Approximately 900 000 packages of radioactive material are transported each year in France, including ∼100 000 packages manufactured according to a design approved by the competent authority, through 60 000 transports. With an aim of reducing the risks related to transport, the feedback resulting from the thorough analysis of the events occurring during radioactive material transports is utilised by French Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), as is the feedback of the assessments of the safety analysis reports of the various package designs. Based on these feedbacks, IRSN proposes areas of improvement relating to package designs and transport operations, and regulatory modifications, as well as priority topics for the inspections carried out by the French Nuclear Safety Authority. This paper presents a synthesis of the 901 transport events involving radioactive material occurred in France from 1999 to 2007, which have been listed in the IRSN database. For each of them, ∼70 parameters have been collected from the analysis of the notifications and reports of the events [type of event, type of package, level on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), etc.]. The annual development of transport events involving radioactive material and their seriousness is presented in this paper as well as the summary of incidents with radiological aspect. Then, two significant events are described: one with the highest level on the INES scale since 1999 and the other occurred in 2007, involving a type B package in a fire. Finally, an analysis of the most frequent types of events from 1999 to 2007 and of their evolution's tendencies is presented. This analysis gives a view of the safety of the radioactive material transports through the elements that could be deduced from events feedback.