Inspectors from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) attended last week's Radioactive Materials Transport (RAMTrans) 2024, the triannual conference dedicated to all aspects of packaging for the transport, storage and disposal of radioactive and nuclear materials.
Organised by the Nuclear Institute, the forum allows expertise on industry successes and challenges to be shared among designers, operators, research organisations and regulators from around the world.
Leading professionals gathered at the Pullman Hotel in London with ONR's fellow attendees including Rolls-Royce SMR, the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) and EDF Energy.
This year's RAMTrans, last held in 2018 due to a COVID-related postponement in 2021, featured several keynote speeches including one from Seth Kybird, Chief Executive Officer Nuclear Transport Solutions, along with international contributions from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and also the Greek and Italian regulators.
Paul Butler, an ONR Nuclear Safety Inspectors within the Transport Competent Authority (TCA), presented to delegates about the essential components of a suitable and sufficient transport radiation risk assessment.
From a regulator’s perspective, this considers all hazards with the potential to cause radiation accidents, with adequate emergency plans also required.
Paul spoke about the common non-compliances revealed during dutyholder transport inspections and how putting in place robust arrangements from the outset reduces the potential for future enforcement action.
On Friday, Christopher Jones, an ONR Principal Inspector within the TCA, delivered a keynote speech entitled 'It's good to talk – Communication and co-operation within the transport chain'.
This outlined some of ONR's key and regularly-seen concerns including foreign dutyholders (consignors and carriers) not understanding UK specific regulations, import agents or distributors failing to confirm that their carriers are compliant and carriers not confirming they have suitable Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 consent.
Recent intelligence has shown that some dutyholders are not keeping updated with new regulations and so we are encouraging the industry to recognise the value of better communication, acting together to support organisations in increasingly complex transport chains to get things right first time.
Chris said: "RAMTrans is a valuable opportunity to engage with a wide range of our stakeholders, influencing behaviours in a more impactful and immediate way than is possible during a one-off transport inspection."