ANS Position Statement: The Safety of Transporting Radioactive Materials

More than 45 million shipments of radioactive materials have taken place in the United States
over the last three decades, with a current rate of about three million per year. The majority of
these radioactive shipments consist of radiopharmaceuticals, luminous dials and indicators,
smoke detectors, contaminated clothing and equipment, and research and industrial sources.
Fewer than 3,500, or 0.01%, have been involved in any sort of accident, incident, or anything
other than routine transportation. And, fewer than 200 were damaged or failed in any form. None
of the damaged packages contained used fuel or high-level radioactive materials. Small amounts
of radioactive materials were released in some instances, but they were always below the limits
allowed by the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Part 71, Appendix A, Table A2, and no
cases resulted in any health effects attributable to these events.