Regulatory References

When transporting radioactive materials, there are a variety of package types used as defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material. The bulk of these regulations are applicable in Canada due to adoption by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) in its Packaging and Transport of Nuclear Substances Regulations, 2015 (PTNSR) and Transport Canada’s Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (TDGR).

The newest version of the IAEA’s regulations, Rev. 2, was published in December 2025. In Canada, amended versions of the IAEA’s regulations come into force two years after the day on which the amendment is initially published or six months after the day on which the amendment is available in both official languages, whichever is later. So, the current version in force is Rev. 1 from 2018. Quotations in this post are taken from it, but overall, the content in the post is common to both editions. This post will be general in nature and for details people should refer to the regulations in force in their jurisdiction.

Definitions

There are a number of terms all beginning with the letter “C” which need to be defined before diving into the content.

• Consignment: any package or packages, or load of radioactive material, presented by a consignor for transport.
• Consignor: any person, organization or government that prepares a consignment for transport.
• Carrier: any person, organization or government undertaking the carriage of radioactive material by any means of transport. The term includes both carriers for hire or reward (known as common or contract carriers in some countries) and carriers on own account (known as private carriers in some countries).
• Conveyance:
  • For transport by road or rail: any vehicle;
  • For transport by water: any vessel, or any hold, compartment, or defined deck area of a vessel;
  • For transport by air: any aircraft.
• Consignee: any person, organization or government that is entitled to take delivery of a consignment.

General Concept

The objective of the IAEA’s transport regulations is to “ensure safety and to protect people, property, and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation during the transport of radioactive material.” This objective is achieved by requiring that those involved in transport contain the radioactive contents, control the external dose rate, prevent criticality, and prevent damage caused by heat.

There are different package designs based on the radioactive material being contained. There is a graded approach to restrictions on the contents of packages and conveyances. It is unreasonable to expect that there will never be a transport accident, so as the risk associated with the consignment increases, the required package testing and certification expectations increase. The requirements around the carrier and conveyance become more protective as well.

In the IAEA regulations, there are general requirements for all package types, and then separate requirements specific to package type. We will go through the package types in the order they are presented in the regulations, but first we have to cover some additional terminology.

More Definitions and Some Acronyms

To understand the package types, we also need the following definitions:

• Special form radioactive material: either an indispersible solid radioactive material or a sealed capsule containing radioactive material. The PTNSR requires that it be certified and marked as special form.
• Low dispersible radioactive material: either a solid radioactive material or a solid radioactive material in a sealed capsule that has limited dispersibility and is not in powder form.
• Specific activity: the activity per unit mass of a nuclide or the activity per unit mass of a material in which the radionuclides are essentially uniformly distributed.
• Low specific activity (LSA) material: radioactive material that by its nature has a limited specific activity, or radioactive material for which limits of estimated average specific activity apply. External shielding materials surrounding the LSA material are not considered in determining the estimated average specific activity. This classification has 3 groups: LSA-I, LSA-II, and LSA-III, based on material, activity, and/or activity concentration.
• Surface contaminated object (SCO): a solid object that is not itself radioactive, but which has radioactive material distributed on its surface. This classification has 3 groups: SCO-I, SCO-II, and SCO-III, based on the radioactivity level, contamination type (fixed versus non-fixed), ability to access the contamination, and physical properties of the consignment.
• Exclusive use: the sole use, by a single consignor, of a conveyance or of a large freight container, in respect of which all initial, intermediate and final loading and unloading and shipment are carried out in accordance with the directions of the consignor or consignee. This means that the conveyance carries the consignment from a single consignor to the consignee with no other loading or unloading in between.
• Unilateral approval: an approval of a design that is required to be given by the competent authority of the country of origin of the design only.
• Multilateral approval: approval by the relevant competent authority of the country of origin of the design or shipment, as applicable, and also, where the consignment is to be transported through or into any other country, approval by the competent authority of that country.

Types of Radioactive Transport Packages and Intended Contents

Each package type has a list of requirements given in the IAEA regulations. They are quite detailed, so rather than list them all, please refer to the reference document. Rather, here is a list of the package types, with a general description of what they are supposed to contain and the level to which they are expected to perform.

Package Type	Intended Contents
Excepted package	Contains very small amounts of radioactive material. The activity limits for these packages are calculated based on the form of the material and what would be allowed in a Type A package for that material or article. Excepted packages have no containment or shielding integrity test requirements.
Industrial package	LSA and SCO. These consignments have risk due to the large volume of material rather than specific activity. There are 3 types, from lowest design and testing requirements to highest: Type IP-1, Type IP-2, and Type IP-3. The package type required depends on the LSA/SCO group, whether the consignment is under exclusive use, and the physical form of the material.
Type A package	Contains radioactive material up to an activity limit by isotope outlined in the IAEA regulations, called the A values: A1 for special form; A2 for not special form. These packages are tested to ensure they will stay intact during normal transport conditions.
Type B package	Required when activity exceeds the Type A package activity limit. These are tested to ensure that they will stay intact during severe accident conditions. There are 2 groups: B(U) and B(M) based on whether the package requires unilateral or multilateral approval.
Type C package	Required when transporting high activity materials by air, in exceedance of what a Type B package is permitted to contain when shipping by air. Type C packages are tested to ensure they will stay intact during the severe conditions of an aircraft accident.

When shipping uranium hexafluoride or fissile material, there will be requirements over and above those for the type of package that would otherwise be used, as well as additional requirements during transport.

Selecting a Package

So how do you land on the right package for an actual consignment? There is a classification process to work through that considers the activity of the material or article compared to the appropriate A value, its physical form, whether it qualifies as LSA or SCO, and the mode of transport. Then there are extra requirements if it is a consignment containing fissile material or uranium hexafluoride over certain amounts. We will cover classifying consignments in a future post.