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Radioactive Material

Answer

I have been asked to reply.Details of all events involving the transport of radioactive material in the UK since 1989 have been published in a series of annual reports. The latest report in this series is ““Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK—2004 Review (HPA-RPD-007)””. This report is on the internet at the following address:"http://www.hpa.org.uk/radiation/publications/hpa_rpd_reports/2005/hpa_rod_007.htm"Details of all the previous reports in the series are contained in the reference section of the latest report. A report detailing events occurring during 2005 will be published in late 2006.Two reports analysing trends in events have also been published, these are: ““Review of the Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK from 1964 to 1988 (NRPB-M206)”” and ““Review of the Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK from 1958 to 1994 (NRPB-R282)””.The reports contain information concerning all abnormal events involving the transport of radioactive material which have been reported to or have otherwise come to the attention of the Department for Transport. The total number of events for each year and mode of transport are:

	Air	Road	Rail	Ship	Airport
1975	2	7	0	3	18
1976	1	3	7	1	23
1977	1	5	7	1	20
1978	1	4	6	1	16
1979	1	4	3	1	10
1980	0	3	7	1	11
1981	2	5	6	0	7
1982	1	2	3	0	9
1983	1	5	0	0	2
1984	0	3	4	3	1
1985	1	7	4	0	0
1986	2	2	2	2	0
1987	3	5	5	1	0
1988	1	9	4	3	2
1989	2	6	4	2	0
1990	2	6	7	3	1
1991	4	5	9	3	3
1992	4	8	3	1	0
1993	2	8	6	0	3
1994	5	3	11	0	1
1995	6	16	5	1	1
1996	4	9	4	2	9
1997	7	13	3	1	2
1998	11	13	11	0	9
1999	12	13	6	2	5
2000	7	20	15	1	2
2001	3	12	20	1	0
2002	6	10	0	3	1
2003	4	4	3	0	0
2004	3	14	3	0	0
(12) These are events that occurred in airport warehouses and usually involved packages falling from fork-lift trucks. These have been included separately because to classify them as either air or road events would be misleading.

The events in this table include all abnormal events, howsoever minor, and covers all movements of radioactive material, however small and for whatever reason, usually in connection with medical diagnosis/treatment, research or industrial radiography. The list includes events clearly identifiable as accidents (e.g. dropped packages or road traffic accidents), however, the majority are events such as stolen packages, incorrectly prepared packages or packages transported without the correct labelling/paperwork. Most of these events were minor with no radiological consequences and in some cases were false alarms. Very rarely was radioactive material released to the environment or did people receive significant radiation doses.Examination of the reports referred to earlier in this answer will give a fuller understanding of the frequency, severity and consequences of accidents involving the transport of radioactive material in the UK. Copies of all these reports are available in the House of Commons Library.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

27665; 439 c1890-1W;439 c1891-2W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Aviation Accidents Railways Radioactive materials Transport Roads Shipping

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk