The Radioactive Material (Road Transport) (Great Britain) Regulations 1996

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“A₁” means the maximum activity of special form radioactive material permitted in a Type A package, calculated in accordance with Schedule 1;

“A₂” means the maximum activity of radioactive material other than special form radioactive material permitted in a Type A package, calculated in accordance with Schedule 1;

“accident conditions of transport” means conditions of transport involving more than minor mishaps;

“ADR” means the 1995 edition of the “European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR)” (1995) produced by the Department of Transport and published by HMSO (ISBN 011-551265-9);

“the Act” means the Radioactive Material (Road Transport) Act 1991;

“carrier” means a person undertaking the transport of radioactive material, and includes both a carrier for hire or reward and a carrier on own account;

“competent authority” means the Secretary of State, or any national authority of a state other than the United Kingdom or any international authority designated or otherwise recognised as a competent authority for any purpose in connection with the International Safety Regulations as they apply to road transport;

“competent authority identification mark” means a mark assigned by a competent authority in accordance with Schedule 23;

“consignee” any person who receives a consignment;

“consignment” means any package or packages, or load of radioactive material, presented by a consignor for transport;

“consignor” means any person who presents a consignment for transport and who is named as consignor in the transport documents, or a freight forwarder acting as agent for such a person;

“containment system” means the assembly of components of the packaging specified by the designer as intended to retain and form the boundary of the radioactive material during transport;

“contamination” means the contamination of any surface or any part of absorbent material by any radioactive material, and “contaminated” and “decontaminated” shall be construed accordingly;

“conveyance” means any vehicle, any seagoing vessel or inland waterway craft used for carrying cargo, any hold, compartment or deck area of any such vessel or craft, or any aircraft;

“the Dangerous Goods Recommendations” means the eighth revised edition of the “The United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods” prepared by the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods published by HMSO (ISBN 92-1-139042-7);

“depleted uranium” means uranium containing a lesser mass percentage of uranium-235 than in natural uranium;

“design” means, in relation to any package, packaging or special form radioactive material, a description which enables that package, packaging or material to be fully identified and which may include specifications, engineering drawings, reports demonstrating compliance with regulatory requirements, and other relevant documentation;

“driver” means, in relation to a trailer, the driver of the vehicle by which the trailer is drawn;

“excepted package” means a package which meets the requirements of paragraphs 1 to 9 and 12 of Schedule 2 and—

(a)

is a package containing radioactive material of limited activity which meets the requirements of Schedule 3;

(b)

is a package containing instruments or manufactured articles which meets the requirements of Schedule 4; or

(c)

is an empty packaging which meets the requirements of Schedule 5.

“exclusive use” means the sole use, by a single consignor, of a conveyance or of a large freight container with a minimum length of 6 metres, in respect of which all initial, intermediate, and final loading and unloading is carried out in accordance with the directions of the consignor or consignee;

“fissile material” means uranium-233, uranium-235, plutonium-238, plutonium-239, plutonium-241, or any combination thereof, and does not include unirradiated natural uranium, unirradiated depleted uranium, or natural uranium or depleted uranium which has been irradiated in thermal reactors only;

“fissible package” means a package which meets the requirements of Schedule 7;

“fixed contamination” means contamination which is not non-fixed contamination;

“freight container” means an article of transport equipment designed to facilitate the transport of goods, either packaged or unpackaged, by one or more modes of transport without intermediate reloading, which is of a permanent enclosed character, rigid and strong enough for repeated use, and fitted with devices facilitating its handling particularly in transfer between conveyances and from one mode of transport to another;

“goods compartment” means a part of a vehicle intended or adapted for the transport of goods or burden;

“industrial package” means an industrial package Type 1 (IP-1), an industrial package Type 2 (IP-2) or an industrial package Type 3 (IP-3);

“industrial package Type 1 (IP-1)” means a package meeting the requirements of Schedule 9, Part I;

“industrial package Type 2 (IP-2)” means a package meeting the requirements of Schedule 9, Part II;

“industrial package Type 3 (IP-3)” means a package meeting the requirements of Schedule 9, Part III;

“the International Safety Regulations” means the “Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material 1985 edition (As amended 1990)” published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna 1990, Safety Series No. 6 (ISBN 92-0-123890-8);

“the ISO classification document” means the International Organisation for Standardisation document, “Sealed radioactive sources—Classification” published by the British Standards Institution and HMSO (Reference No. ISO 2919-1980 (E));

“the ISO freight containers document” means the International Organisation for Standardisation document, “Series 1 Freight Containers—Specifications and Testing—Part 1: General Cargo Containers” published by the British Standards Institution and HMSO (Reference No. ISO 1496/1-1978);

“the ISO leak test document” means the International Organisation for Standardisation document, “Sealed Radioactive Sources—Leak Test Methods” published by the British Standards Institution and HMSO (Reference No. ISO/TR 4826-1979 (E));

“large freight container” means a freight container which is not a small freight container;

“low specific activity material” means radioactive material which by its nature has a limited specific activity, or for which limits of estimated average specific activity, disregarding external shielding materials surrounding the radioactive material, apply;

“LSA material” means low specific activity material;

“LSA-I” means LSA material comprising—

(i)

ores containing naturally occurring radionuclides (such as uranium and thorium), and uranium or thorium concentrates of such ores;

(ii)

solid unirradiated natural uranium or depleted uranium or natural thorium or their solid or liquid compounds or mixtures; or

(iii)

radioactive material, other than fissile material, for which the A₂ value is unlimited;

“LSA-II” means LSA material comprising—

(i)

water with tritium concentration up to 0.8 TBq/L; or

(ii)

other material in which the activity is distributed throughout and the estimated average specific activity does not exceed 10⁻⁴ A₂/g for solids and gases, and 10⁻⁵ A₂/g for liquids;

“LSA-III” means LSA material comprising solids (such as consolidated wastes and activated materials) in which:

(i)

the radioactive material is distributed throughout a solid or a collection of solid objects, or is essentially uniformly distributed in a solid compact binding agent (such as concrete, bitumen, ceramic, etc.);

(ii)

the radioactive material is relatively insoluble, or it is intrinsically contained in a relatively insoluble matrix; and

(iii)

the estimated average specific activity of the solid, excluding any shielding material, does not exceed 2×10⁻³ A₂/g;

and which is of such a nature that if the entire contents of a package containing the material were subjected to the test specified in Part I of Schedule 15 the activity in the water used in the test would not, at the end of the test, exceed 0.1 A₂;

“low toxicity alpha emitter” means thorium-228 in ores or physical or chemical concentrates, natural uranium, depleted uranium, natural thorium, uranium-235, uranium-238, thorium-232, or an alpha emitter with a half-life of less than ten days;

“maximum normal operating pressure” means the maximum pressure above atmospheric pressure at mean sea level that would develop in the containment system in a period of one year under the conditions of temperature and solar radiation corresponding to environmental conditions of transport in the absence of venting, external cooling by an ancillary system, or operational controls during transport;

“multilateral approval” means approval by the competent authority both of the state of origin of the design or shipment and of each state through or into (but not by air over) which the consignment is to be transported;

“naturally occurring distribution of uranium isotopes” means approximately 99.28% uranium-238 and 0.72% uranium-235 by mass, but including a very small mass percentage of uranium-234;

“natural uranium” means chemically separated uranium containing the naturally occurring distribution of uranium isotopes;

“non-fixed contamination” means contamination that can be removed from a surface during normal handling;

“normal conditions of transport” means conditions of transport including minor mishaps;

“the Northern Ireland Regulations” means regulations for the time being in force for Northern Ireland under an Order in Council under paragraph 1(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Northern Ireland Act 1974(1) which contains the statement specified in section 8 of the Act;

“overpack” means an enclosure, such as a box or bag, which is used by a single consignor to consolidate into one handling unit a consignment of two or more packages for convenience of handling, stowage and transport;

“package” means packaging with the radioactive contents thereof as presented for transport;

“packaging” may, in particular, include service equipment for filling, emptying, venting and pressure relief, and devices for cooling, for absorbing mechanical shocks, for providing handling and tie-down capability, for thermal insulation and service devices integral to the package, and may be a box, drum or similar receptacle, or a freight container or tank;

“personnel compartment” means a driver’s compartment in a vehicle or a part of a vehicle intended or adapted for the carriage of persons in the vehicle;

“quality assurance programme” means a systematic programme of controls, inspections and training applied by any organisation or body involved in the transport of radioactive material, including designers and manufacturers of packagings, consignors and carriers, to ensure compliance with the requirements of the International Safety Regulations applicable to packages and consignments;

“radiation level” means the corresponding dose equivalent rate expressed in millisieverts per hour (“mSv/h”);

“radioactive contents” means radioactive material together with any contaminated solids, liquids and gases within the packaging;

“radioactive material” does not include radioactive material which is an integral part of the means of transport of that material;

“road”: (a) in relation to England and Wales, means any highway and any other road to which the public has access, and (b) in relation to Scotland has the same meaning as in the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984(2);

“routine transport” means incident free conditions;

“shipment” means the specific movement of a consignment from origin to destination where that movement includes transport in Great Britain;

“small freight container” means a freight contrainer which has either any overall outer dimension less than 1.5 metres, or an internal volume of not more than 3.0 m³;

“special arrangement” means provisions approved under regulation 15;

“special form radioactive material” means an indispersible solid radioactive material or a sealed capsule containing radioactive material, which meets the requirements of Schedule 6;

“specific activity” means the activity of a radionuclide per unit mass of that nuclide, the specific activity of a material in which the radionuclide is essentially uniformly distributed being the activity per unit mass of that material;

“surface contaminated object” means a solid object which is not itself radioactive but which has radioactive material distributed on its surfaces;

“SCO” means a surface contaminated object;

“SCO-I” means an SCO on which:

(i)

the non-fixed contamination on the accessible surface averaged over 300 cm² (or the area of the surface if less than 300 cm²) does not exceed 4 Bq/cm² for beta and gamma emitters and low toxicity alpha emitters, or 0.4 Bq/cm² for all other alpha emitters; and

(ii)

the fixed contamination on the accessible surface, averaged over 300 cm² (or the area of the surface if less than 300 cm²) does not exceed 4×10⁴ Bq/cm² for beta and gamma emitters and low toxicity alpha emitters, or 4×10³ Bq/cm² for all other alpha emitters; and

(iii)

the non-fixed contamination plus the fixed contamination on the inaccessible surface, averaged over 300 cm² (or the area of the surface if less than 300 cm²) does not exceed 4×10⁴ Bq/cm² for beta and gamma emitters and low toxicity alpha emitters, or 4×10³ Bq/cm² for all other alpha emitters;

“SCO-II” means an SCO on which either the fixed or non-fixed contamination on the surface exceeds the applicable limits specified for SCO-I in the definition of that term and on which:

(i)

the non-fixed contamination on the accessible surface averaged over 300 cm² (or the area of the surface if less than 300 cm²) does not exceed 400 Bq/cm² for beta and gamma emitters and low toxicity alpha emitters, or 40 Bq/cm² for all other alpha emitters; and

(ii)

the fixed contamination on the accessible surface, averaged over 300 cm² (or the area of the surface if less than 300 cm²) does not exceed 8×10⁵ Bq/cm² for beta and gamma emitters and low toxicity alpha emitters, or 8×10⁴ Bq/cm² for all other alpha emitters; and

(iii)

the non-fixed contamination plus the fixed contamination on the inaccessible surface averaged over 300 cm² (or the area of the surface if less than 300 cm²) does not exceed 8×10⁵ Bq/cm² for beta and gamma emitters and low toxicity alpha emitters, or 8×10⁴ Bq/cm² for all other alpha emitters;

“tank” means a tank container, portable tank, a road tank vehicle, a rail tank wagon or a receptacle with a capacity of not less than 450 litres to contain liquids, powders, granules, slurries or solids which are loaded as gas or liquid and subsequently solidified, and not less than 1000 litres to contain gases;

“tank container” means a container capable of being carried on land or on sea and of being loaded and discharged without the need of removal of its structural equipment, possessing stabilising members and tie-down attachments external to the shell, and capable of being lifted when full;

“transport” means transport by road and includes all operations and conditions associated with and involved in the movement of radioactive material by road, including—

(a)

the design, fabrication and maintenance of packaging,

(b)

the preparation, consigning, handling, carriage, storage in transit and receipt at the final destination of packages,

(c)

normal and accident conditions of transport by road encountered in carriage and in storage during transit, and

(d)

transport by road which is incidental to the use of the radioactive material;

“Transport Index (TI)” means a single number determined in accordance with Schedule 17 and assigned to a package, overpack, tank or freight container, or to unpackaged LSA-I or SCO-I;

“Type A package” means a package containing an activity up to A₁, if special form radioactive material, or up to A₂ if not special form radioactive material, meeting the requirements of Schedule 11;

“Type B package” means a package containing an activity that may be in excess of A₁, if special form radioactive material, or in excess of A₂ if not special form radioactive material, which is either a Type B(M) package or a Type B(U) package;

“Type B(M) package” means a package meeting the requirements of Schedule 14;

“Type B(U) package” means a package meeting the requirements of Schedule 13;

“uncompressed gas” means gas at a pressure not exceeding ambient atmospheric pressure at the time the containment system is closed;

“unilateral approval” means an approval of a design which is required to be given by the competent authority of the state of origin of the design alone;

“unirradiated thorium” means thorium containing not more than 10⁻⁷ g of uranium-233 per gram of thorium-232;

“unirradiated uranium” means uranium containing not more than 10⁻⁶ g of plutonium per gram of uranium-235 and not more than 9 MBq of fission products per gram of uranium-235;

“vehicle” means a road vehicle, including an articulated vehicle, and, except for the purposes of regulation 34, each trailer shall be considered as a separate vehicle;

“visiting force” means any such body, contingent or detachment of the forces of any state to which the provisions of the Visiting Forces Act 1952(3) apply by virtue of section 1(1)(a) or section 1(1)(b), and any Order in Council under section 1(2), of that Act.

(2) These Regulations give effect to the International Safety Regulations and, unless the context otherwise requires, other expressions used in these Regulations which are also used in those Regulations have the meaning they bear in those Regulations.

(3) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to—

(a) a numbered regulation or a numbered schedule is a reference to the regulation or schedule bearing that number in these Regulations;

(b) a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph bearing that number in the regulation or schedule in which the reference appears;

(c) a numbered table is a reference to the table bearing that number in Schedule 36.

(1)

1974 c. 28.

(2)

1984 c. 54; the definition of “road” in section 151(1) was amended by the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (c. 22), section 168(1) and Schedule 8.

(3)

1952 c. 67.