Transporting radioactive material is irresponsible

The transport of radioactive materials from the nuclear industry is strictly regulated due to the diversity of the materials concerned and the safety issues they imply. The most dangerous packages are designed to withstand extreme conditions, such as falls, violent impact, deep submersion, and intense fires.

Firstly, many radioactive material transport operations fall within the medical and industrial sector [1]. However, for our purposes we will focus on the transport of radioactive materials from the nuclear industry.

During the different stages of the nuclear fuel "cycle", radioactive materials are transported between the various facilities necessary for their preparation and disposal. These transport operations often raise fears among populations. However, they are subject to a very strict regulatory framework.

Very diverse packages

Transport concerns a wide variety of materials, even when considering exclusively the nuclear power sector: natural uranium, enriched uranium, spent fuel, etc. These materials each have their safety issues and therefore very different regulations, but all are prepared and packed in packages suited to the risks they present. The most dangerous waste, with the highest radiotoxicity, is enclosed in packages designated by the letter C. These packages are designed to withstand the most extreme attacks: resistance to a fall of 9 m, an impact at 48 km/h on a non-deformable target, immersion under two hundred meters of water, resistance to fires at more than 800°C for 30 minutes [2].

You can even watch videos of some British and American crash-tests of these packages:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mHtOW-OBO4

Given that these are transportable packages and the waste management steps may involve several countries as well as international spaces, the regulation concerning transport of radioactive material is international - i.e., each national authority complies with the rules adopted globally under the aegis of the IAEA.