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Page 54
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by Les Old ridge AIRTE, AMIMI
The carrying of radioactive substances by road (3)
MOST traffic regulations, after setting out elaborate -requirements to be complied with, then give a list of exemptions to these requirements. In this respect the Radioactive Substances Carriage by Road Regulations is no exception as Part III lists several exemptions to the main requirements described earlier.
These may be summarised by saying that generally they relate to the carriage of materials with a very small radiation dose; materials carried for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and required for the production or development of any weapon and radioactive waste are disposed of under the Radioactive Substances Act, 1960. There is also minor relaxation of the Regulations for vehicles contaminated in the course of carrying a full-load consignment of low specific activity material or a vehicle which has been involved in a radiation accident travelling directly to the nearest place at which it may be safely decontaminated. Vehicles with less than eight seats and with no passengers under 18 years of age, and ambulances carrying materials authorized by a hospitals radiological safety officer are exempt from most of the Regulations provided• that the material is in a white label package.
Having dealt with the Radioactive Substances Carriage by Road Regulations at some length, it is now necessary to look at the Radioactive Substances (Road Transport Workers) (Great Britain) Regulations 1970 to get a complete picture of the law with which a carrier engaging in this type of work must comply.
It must be remembered that exposure to radiation has an accumulative effect, the longer and the more continually one is exposed then the greater is the risk to health, and the Regulations reflect this.
The Regulations apply where the dose rate anywhere on any interior surface of the driver's cab exceeds or is likely to exceed 2 millirem per hour at any time during the course of the carriage and where the radioactive substance is nearer to the driver's cab than the distance specified in the table set out in the 1st Schedule to the Regulations, in relation to the total sum of the indexes specified on the labels of the packages. This table is set out below. The Regulations also apply where the radioactive substance is contained in a full load or specially approved consignment.
If the load falls within the description outlined above then its movement becomes a "regulated transport operation" and any person acting as a driver or attendant on the vehicle is scheduled as a "radioactive substance transport worker". The significance of these terms will become clearer a little later.
Vehicle operators using vehicles from a depot on regulated transport operations on December 19, 1970 should have informed the Licensing Authority that he was doing so within one month of that date. Anyone starting such operations must inform the LA at least one month before doing so unless the LA agrees to a shorter period of notice. "Licensing Authority" has the same meaning as in connection with operators' licensing. The notice to the LA must contain the following details:— (a) The number of vehicles used, or likely to be used.
(b) The type or types of such vehicles.
(c) The registered number of the vehicles to be used as far as they are known.
(a) The depot or depots from which they are to operate.
(e) A statement by the carrier as to whether he proposes to establish a scheme of work for some or all of the radioactive substances transport workers who will travel on the vehicles and if so details of the scheme proposed and of the workers to whom it will apply.
(f) Where no scheme of work is proposed, or where the scheme does not extend to all the workers, a statement as to the reasons why this is so.
A radioactive substances transport worker who is employed in an approved scheme is referred to as 'an approved scheme worker" and one who does not work within such a scheme is known as a "classified worker".
There appear to be advantages in providing an approved scheme of work if one is engaged regularly in carrying these materials and next week I hope to discuss the Regulations when working with an approved scheme and without one.