Radioactive Material

In order to maintain the principal of keeping exposure of radiation as low as reasonably achievable, packages of radioactive materials should be stored as far away from passengers and crew as possible, i.e. on the floor of under floor compartments or in the furthermost end of main deck cargo compartments.

The transport index (TI) shown on the hazard label will determine the separation distance required between radioactive materials and passengers. The separation distances shown in Tables 10.9.C (below) and 10.9.D in the IATA DGR are the minimum values and greater distances should be used where feasible.

Print this Table

If the minimum separation distance reaches the passenger area, then it may be possible to divide the packages into smaller groups and separate horizontally.

The steps to do this are:

1. Find the package or group of packages that have the largest TI.
2. Determine the minimum separation distance using Table 9.3.D for the package with the largest TI.
3. Multiply that distance by 3 to find the horizontal distance between packages.

From the table above we could find that if a package had a TI of 5.0 the minimum distance the package has to be from passenger is 1 meter.

It is preferable that animals are not transported in the same cargo compartment as radioactive materials. However, if this is unavoidable, they are to be separated by a distance of at least 0.5 meters for journeys taking less than 24 hours or 1 meter if travel is longer.

---