Regulatory Issues Associated With Shipment of Small Quantities of Radioactive Material

Following decertification of the ubiquitous and simple Department of Transpsortaion (DOT) 6M specification package, radioactive materials package Shippers have been faced with the need to use Certified Type B packagings. Many Department of Energy (DOE), commercial and academic programs have a need to ship small masses of radioactive material, where the identity of the material or radionuclides is know but the individual activity of some may not be known. For quantities which are small enough to be fissile exempt and have adequate shielding to ensure low radiation levels, these materials could be transported in a package which provides the required containment level. Because their Chalfant type containment vessels meet the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) N14.5 definition for leak-tight (≤ 1×10⁻⁷ ref cm³ air/sec), the 9975, 9977, and 9978 are capable of transporting contents requiring the highest standard of containment. The issues associated with certification of a high-integrity, general purpose package for shipping small quantities of such radioactive material are discussed and the logical basis for certification for such contents is described.