Regulatory Experience of PNRA for Certification of Type B(U) Packaging

Radioactive material above a certain activity limit as defined in national and international regulations is transported in specific containers called B(U) packages. According to international standards, the design of such packages shall be approved by the competent authority of the country of origin of design and shall be capable to withstand the normal and hypothetical accident conditions during transportation. In Pakistan, the shipments of high activity radioactive material are carried out in such packages which have design approval certificates issued by the competent authorities of the countries from where the material is imported. Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) verifies the validity of certificate and allows only those shipments which comply with the certificate requirements and conditions received along with the package. In 2016, PNRA issued design certificate for type B(U) packages to transport radiopharmaceuticals for the first time. PNRA regulatory framework on safe transport of radioactive material is mainly the adoption of IAEA TS-R-1(2003). To ensure compliance with the current international requirements for transport, the IAEA Transport Regulations (SSR-6) were also taken into consideration during the authorization of the B(U) package. This paper presents PNRA certification process for type B(U) packages mainly comprising of review assessment of safety case and inspection of qualification tests on prototype of the package.