International Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material

Abstract

The Agency's Regulationsfor the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material have recently celebrated their 30th anniversary. They have served and still serve as the regulatory basis for both international and domestic transport in most of the Member States of the Agency. The Agency is now preparing a new comprehensively revised Edition of the Regulations. The revision of the Regulations has developed into a formal process of continuous review and revision with a cycle of about 10 years. The efficiency of this review and revision process has been demonstrated to the extent that some major problems could be identified in a timely fashion, resulting in a broad agreement on proposed changes to the Regulations. On the other hand it has displayed the increasing complexity of these Regulations, provoked by the need that they must be responsive to new developments both with respect to the materials and to the modes of transport. This paper describes some of the envisaged changes. which will develop into maturity when they are accepted for incorporation in the 1996 revised Edition of the Regulations.