Licensing Air and Transboundary Shipments of Spent Nuclear Fuel

S.V.Komarov, M.E.Budu, D.V.Derganov, O.A.Savina (R&D Company "Sosny", Russia), I.M.Bolshinsky, S.D.Moses (DOE, USA), L.Biro (CNCAN, Romania)

International Conference on the Safe and Secure Transport of Radioactive Material: The Next Fifty Years of Transport - Creating a Safe, Secure and Sustainable Framework, Vienna, Austria, 17-21 October 2011

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Since 1996 the IAEA TS-R-1 regulation included new requirements applicable to transport of fissile materials by air. The later 2005 and 2009 editions confirmed the validity of those provisions. Despite the fact that the IAEA TS-R-1 allows for air shipments of SNF in Type B and Type C packages, the examples of such shipments are not abundant. Nuclear regulatory bodies and transport safety experts are cautious about air shipments of SNF. Why so? What are the risks? What are the alternatives?