On the compliance of type A packages with the requirements of the regulations

In the national and international regulations on the transport of radioactive materials, which are based on the IAEA Regulations for the Safe transport of Radioactive Material, requirements are given for the type A packages. There is, however, no official type testing and competent authority approval necessary for these type of packages. It is the responsibility of the consigner and the manufacturer of the packagings to comply with the regulations. In the Netherlands the competent authority wanted to get more information, whether the type A packages used for the transport of radioactive material fulfill the requirements as given in the regulations. Therefore, the TNO Packaging Research Institute was asked to carry out a study with the aim to make an inventory on the kind of type A packages in use in The Netherlands for the transport of radioactive material and to investigate whether they comply with the regulations. After performing the inventory phase a detailed test procedure was developed, based on the test program for type A packagings as given in the regulations. This appeared to be necessary in order to be able to perform the tests in a reproducible way. Then a selection was made from the various kinds of packagings, which were tested according to this test procedure. Conclusions were drawn with respect to the compliance of type A packages with the requirements of the regulations and recommendations given for improvement