Waste will need to be transported safely from waste producers to any facility for the treatment, packaging, storage or disposal of the Waste. The requirements for the safe transport of radioactive material by road, rail and sea are derived from international agreements and European Directives. These requirements have been implemented in UK legislation setting out what types of transport package are allowed, how much radioactivity they are allowed to contain, and how they should perform against specified tests. The requirements are based upon a graded approach to safety, where the design and test requirements for packages become more stringent as hazard potential increases. The international regulatory framework upon which Great Britain’s radioactive material transport regulations are based is well established by differs from much of Great Britain’s health and safety legislation in that the requirements are more prescriptive than goal-setting.

Approval from the transport safety regulator is required for certain package designs and shipments. The transport safety regulator responsible for granting approvals is the Department for Transport (DfT), and enforcement powers are allocated between DfT, Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). DfT operates a compliance assurance programme where duty-holders are subject to risk-based audit and inspection of their activities. The compliance assurance programme includes audit and inspection of the consignment and carriage of radioactive material and package designs that do not require approvals or consents from DfT as the safety regulator, as well as those that do.