International Conference on the Safe and Secure Transport of Radioactive Material: The Next Fifty Years of Transport - Creating a Safe, Secure and Sustainable Framework

17-21 October 2011
Vienna, Austria

A. Introduction

2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the issue of the IAEA’s first Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials in 1961. Security recommendations applying to the transport of nuclear material initially dated from 1972 and have since included The Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities, which was first issued in 1975. The scope of the current safety requirements and security recommendations covers all modes of transport for all classes of dangerous goods.
The Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources, issued in 2003, addresses safety and security aspects in the management of radioactive sources, including transport. The principle of the regulation by national authorities of the safe and secure transport of nuclear and radioactive materials is long established and the radioactive material transport industry has an enviable reputation for safety and security in transport.
The transport of radioactive material is an expanding worldwide activity involving the movement of products that are essential and necessary for public health, manufacturing, science, and engineering. In spite of the long established regulation of the safe and secure transport of nuclear and radioactive material, recent years have shown that transport operations are increasingly being faced with delays and denials. This results in unwarranted actions, rerouted journeys, and increases in financial and human resources creating frustration for the parties concerned.

Some States are in the process of developing the national regulatory framework essential to ensure and facilitate safe and secure transport. The international conference scheduled for October 2011 provides an ideal opportunity to review current practice. It will be a highly focused international forum that can identify strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement in the safe and secure transport of nuclear and radioactive material and provide ideas on the directions that the IAEA’s work on safety and security in transport could take in the decade to 2021 and beyond.

B. Objective of the Conference

The objective of the conference is to encourage application of appropriate levels of safety and security during transport by:

• Promoting international discussion on the safety and security of radioactive material transport;
• Identifying and sharing best practices;
• Identifying issues and problems;
• Identifying opportunities, such as providing assistance, to support national adoption of comprehensive transport safety and security frameworks;
• Developing ideas for coordinating and enhancing transport safety and security.

C. Scope of the Conference

The conference will address the following topics:

• Nuclear and other radioactive material in legal regulated transport (not illicit trafficking, smuggling, etc.);
• All modes of transport;
• Safety;
• Security;
• Domestic and international movements, including transit;
• Response to accidents and security events;
• Legislative and regulatory requirements and approaches;
• Practical issues such as transport logistics;
• Regional networks; and
• Information security and the need for transparency.

The conference is not intended to cover the technical topics covered in the PATRAM conference (package design and analysis).

D. Audience

The target audience includes:

• Policy and decision makers within national governments (the people who can make decisions and the people who can ensure the feasibility of decisions);
• National regulators; industry representatives (users, consignors and carriers), for both safety and security;
• Technical support organizations;
• Law enforcement, national police, customs and intelligence; and
• International, regional, modal, industry and stakeholder organizations.

E. Programme

The conference programme will consist primarily of plenary sessions with invited papers. The presentations will be followed by panel discussions where questions, submitted by participants in writing, will be addressed. Regional working groups are scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The groups will be open to contributed papers from Member States and international organizations.

The outline programme for the week is:
Day 1: Background briefing sessions will summarize the status of the global situation and will deal with the Global Framework for Transport Safety and Security (information on the existing organizations and their roles; regional agreements);

Day 2: Sessions will concentrate on the expression of the “needs”; what are the existing problems in implementing the IAEA safety and security recommendations?
This will cover the experience of States with fully functional safety and security frameworks and the experience of States with developing safety and security frameworks, as well as industry experience in complying with safety and security requirements;

Day 3: The morning session will concentrate on examples from industry. The afternoon will concentrate on communication.

Day 4: The morning session will concentrate on emergency preparedness, followed in the early afternoon by a discussion on liability. In the afternoon regional working groups will look at processes in their regions

Day 5: The plenary will be presented with a summary by each regional working group; at the closing session, session Chairpersons will present their summaries and the President of the Conference will present the Conference findings, conclusions and recommendations.
F. Contributed papers

Contributed papers

A limited number of contributed papers may complement the invited papers in the regional working groups by providing additional information and perspectives. Concise papers may be submitted presenting the perspective of a Member State or an international organization (or recognized trade association) on their experience of implementing (including developing and complying with) safety and security frameworks based on IAEA safety and security recommendations. It is intended that the papers selected will be presented on Thursday afternoon at the regional working groups.

Regional working groups

The aim of the regional working groups is to encourage authorities that have yet to establish safety and security regulatory frameworks to learn from the experience of other authorities within their region which have been through a similar process.
The working groups will be organized so that one or more authority within the region has an established safety and/or security regulatory regime, or is in the process of establishing one, and therefore is able to share information on the process undertaken, the technical advice and technical assistance required, and the support that was received. Presentations will be followed by panel discussions with a discussion facilitator, a representative of the national administration(s) that made the presentation and other countries within the region. The panel discussion will explore ways in which the countries within the region can individually and collectively implement effective safety and security frameworks. The facilitator is tasked to encourage contributions from all participants in the regional working groups during panel sessions. The reports of the working group leaders will be presented to the conference’s plenary and taken forward into the President’s Final Report.

Deadline for submission of abstracts

Abstracts of intended contributed papers are required to reach the IAEA by 15 February 2011. Abstracts should be sent directly by email to transport.meetings@iaea.org. In addition to the electronic submission, a hard copy of the abstract must also be submitted through one of the competent official authorities (see Section H), together with a completed Form for Submission of a Paper (Form B) and the Participation Form (Form A), to reach the IAEA also by 15 February 2011. The abstracts should not exceed a half page A4 format of single-spaced typing (approximately 150 words). The abstract must be in English and provide sufficient information on the contents of the proposed paper to enable the programme committee’s evaluation. Introductory and general matters should not be included.
Authors will be informed whether their papers have been accepted at the beginning of March 2011. The IAEA, however, reserves the right to refuse the presentation or publication of any paper that does not meet the expectations based on the information given in the abstract.

Deadline for contributed papers

Contributed papers based on those abstracts accepted are required to reach the IAEA by 12 April 2011. Instructions for the preparation and submission of contributed papers will be sent to authors of accepted abstracts and will also be available on the conference web site.

G. Distribution of Documents

The proceedings of the meeting will be published by the IAEA as soon as possible after the meeting. It will include the president’s report, invited papers, contributed papers and copies of presentations.
A preliminary programme of the conference will be available at the conference web site before the conference. The final programme will be distributed upon registration at the conference site.

H. Participation

All persons wishing to participate in the conference are requested to register online in advance. In addition, they must send a completed Participation Form (Form A), the Paper Submission Form (Form B) (if applicable), and the Grant Application Form (Form C) (if applicable) as soon as possible to the competent official authority (Ministry of Foreign Affairs or national atomic energy authority) for subsequent transmission to the IAEA.
A participant will be accepted only if the Participation Form is transmitted through the governmental authorities or by an organization invited to participate.
Participants whose official designations have been received by the IAEA will receive further information on the conference at least three months before the meeting. This information will also be available on the conference website (see Section O).

I. Expenditures

The costs for the organization of the meeting are borne by the IAEA and the Host Government.
No registration fee is charged to participants.

The IAEA is generally not in a position to bear the travel and other costs of designated participants to the conference. The IAEA has, however, limited funds at its disposal to help meet the cost of attendance of selected specialists from Member States eligible to receive technical assistance under the IAEA s technical cooperation programme. Such assistance may be offered, upon specific request, provided that in the IAEA s view the participant will make an important contribution to the meeting. In general, not more than one grant will be awarded to any one country.

If governments wish to apply for a grant on behalf of one of their specialists, they should address specific requests to the IAEA to this effect. Governments should ensure that applications for grants are:

1. Submitted by 12 April 2011;
2. Accompanied by a duly completed and signed Grant Application Form (Form C);
3. Accompanied by a completed Participation Form (Form A).
Applications that do not comply with the above conditions cannot be considered.
Approved grants will be issued in the form of a lump sum payment that usually covers only part of the cost of attendance.

J. Working Language

The working language of the conference will be English. All communications, synopses, abstracts and papers must be sent to the IAEA in English.

K. Accommodation

Detailed information on accommodation and other administrative details will be available on the conference website well in advance of the conference.

L. Visa

Designated participants who require a visa to enter Austria should submit the necessary application to the nearest diplomatic or consular representative of Austria at least 4 weeks before entry into Austria. Please note that Austria is a Schengen State and therefore persons who require a visa will have to apply for a Schengen visa. In States where Austria has no diplomatic mission, visas can be obtained from the consular authority of a Schengen Partner State representing Austria in the country in question.

M. Key Deadlines

Submission of Form B and abstract (max 150 words): 15 February 2011
Notification to participants of acceptance of abstract: beginning March 2011
Submission of contributed paper (only upon request by the IAEA): 12 April 2011
Submission of Form C: 12 April 2011

N. Conference Secretariat

The address of the Conference Secretariat is:
International Atomic Energy Agency
Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100
1400 Vienna, Austria
Email address for abstract/paper submission: transport.meetings@iaea.org

Scientific Secretaries:

Mr J. Stewart
Regulatory Infrastructure and Transport Safety Section
Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety
Telephone No.: (+43 1) 2600 21260
Email: jim.stewart@iaea.org

Ms A.-M. Eriksson Eklund
Detection and Response to Malicious Acts Section
Office of Nuclear Security
Telephone No.: (+43 1) 2600 26638
Email: a.eriksson@iaea.org

Administration and Organization:

Ms K. Morrison
Conference Services Section
Division of Conference and Document Services
IAEA-CN-187
Telephone No.: (+43 1) 2600 21317
Email: k.morrison@iaea.org

Subsequent correspondence on scientific matters should be sent to the Scientific Secretary and correspondence on administrative matters to the IAEA Conference Services Section.

O. Conference web page

Please visit the IAEA conference web page regularly for new information regarding this conference:
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Meetings/Announcements.asp?ConfID=38298external link, opens in a new tab