Office for Nuclear Regulation
An agency of HSE

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Transporting radioactive material - Guidance

Regulations governing the transport of radioactive material are based on standards developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and regulated in Great Britain by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

Advice on the requirements for transporting radioactive material is available from ONR's Radioactive Materials Transport programme. 

You can contact them at: class7@hse.gsi.gov.uk

Guidance material

The Radioactive Materials Transport Team produced the following documents when they were based in the Department for Transport.

You'll find more information on the carriage of other dangerous goods on the Department for Transport's website.

Health Protection Agency reports

ONR (and previously the Department for Transport) commissions the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards Division of the Health Protection Agency (formally the National Radiological Protection Board) to carry out surveys into the radiological impact of the transport of radioactive material in the UK. Surveys on transport under normal conditions are carried out on a modal basis (road/rail, sea and air) approximately every ten years. Reports looking at abnormal events have been published every year since 1989 and made available online since 2001.

The reports and how to obtain them

  1. HPA-CRCE-024 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2011 Review
  2. HPA-CRCE-003 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2009 Review
  3. HPA-RPD-050 A Survey into the Radiological Impact of the Normal Transport of Radioactive Material by sea - Final Report February 2009
  4. 7. HPA-RPD-056 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2008 Review
  5. HPA-RPD-048 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK -2007 Review
  6. HPA-RPD-034 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2006 Review
  7. HPA-RPD-021 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2005 Review
  8. NRPB-W66 Survey into the Radiological Impact of the Normal Transport of Radioactive Material in the UK by Road and Rail - Final Report March 2005
  9. HPA-RPD-007 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2004 Review
  10. HPA-RPD-014 Review of Events Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK, from 1958 to 2004, and their Radiological Consequences
  11. NRPB-W64 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2003 Review
  12. NRPB-W39 Survey into the Radiological Impact of the Normal Transport of Radioactive Material by Air - Final Report March 2003
  13. NRPB-W53 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2002 Review
  14. NRPB-W29 Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2001 Review

The above reports are available on the Health Protection Agency website, as indicated:

Updated 2012-08-31