Nuclear Security During the Transport

The supervisory activity for nuclear security ensuring during the transport of nuclear materials is carried out in accordance with the Atomic Act no. 541/2004 Coll., Decree no. 57/2006 Coll., which was amended by Decree no. 105/2016 Coll., and in accordance with international standards and recommendations.

Under the legislation mentioned above, transport means activities related to the loading of nuclear material, radioactive waste from a nuclear facility, spent nuclear fuel, institutional radioactive waste, abandoned radioactive emitters, radioactive waste of unknown origin, and unused radioactive emitters at the place of loading, transport, and unloading which are carried out within a nuclear installation or between nuclear installations.

The transport of spent and fresh nuclear fuel in the Slovak Republic is transported by rail, road, water and air transport or a combination of the previous.

The transport of radioactive materials may be performed only in transport devices whose types have been approved by the regulatory authority under § 4 para. 2 letter a) point 1 of Atomic act, while the transportation can be performed exclusively based on a transport permit issued to the carrier by the regulatory authority according to § 6 of Atomic act The documentation is more detail characterized in the Decree no. 57/2006 Coll., which lays down details on the requirements for the transport of radioactive materials, as amended by Decree no. 105/2016 Coll. A special condition for issuing a permit according to § 5 par. 3 letter j of Atomic act is approval:

  • documentation of the quality management system for the permitted activity (§ 7 paragraph 4 of Atomic act)
  • preliminary physical protection plan or physical protection plan (Section 7, Paragraph 5 of Atomic act)
  • categorization of selected equipment into safety classes (§ 7 paragraph 6 of Atomic act)
  • the internal emergency plan of the nuclear facility, the plans for the protection of the population, and the emergency traffic regulations (Section 7, Paragraph 8 of Act No. 541/2004 Coll.)

In the case of cross-border transport of nuclear material, a permit is required for the import or export of nuclear material in accordance with § 5 par. 3 letter h of Atomic act Requirements for the import or export of nuclear materials are defined in § 14 of Atomic act and requirements for cross-border transport of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel are defined in § 16 of Act no. 541/2004 Coll.

Updated: 11.08.2022