Contamination of non-food products

On 10 November 2015, the Board of HERCA approved the information paper on the “Contamination of non-food products“.

The present regulatory framework for non-food products is found to be inadequate for the case of an INES-7 event in Europe. The limitations prescribed by ADR/RID for commercial traffic would lead to a regulatory grid lock that cannot be circumvented within the present framework.

The WGE analysed the issue with regard to the handling of contaminated non-food products following an accident. This regulatory gap has so far not been properly addressed in nuclear law.

The paper provides a clear description of the problem from a regulatory perspective and provides two examples.