An Approach to Assessing the Impacts of Incident-Free Air and Highway Transportation of Radioactive Materials

Annual radiation doses and risks were calculated for shipments of radioactive materials both in passenger aircraft and on highways, under accident-free and incident-free conditions, i.e., under normal transportation conditions. The 1982 database developed by Sandia National Laboratories is used, and calculations are made using RADTRAN 4.0. Median TI and maximum TI shipments for six different end uses are used as the basis for risk calculations. Risks are compared to risks from background radiation and cosmic ray sources.