Industry
Nuclear and medical logistics
Class 7 material for industrial, research and medical use, where approvals and elapsed time are the two governing constraints.
Last reviewed 2026-08-28
Read this as orientation, not as authority
This page summarises a regulatory position for planning purposes. It may contain errors or omissions, it is not legal, safety or regulatory advice, and the underlying rules are amended on cycles of their own. Nothing here states what hansa express holds or is approved for. Confirm the current requirement with the competent authority, or ask us about your actual consignment, before you act on it.
Two very different planning problems
Class 7 movements in this sector split into two groups whose constraints barely overlap, and treating them as one category is the usual planning error.
The first is approval-bound: industrial radiography sources, sealed sources for research and processing, nuclear fuel cycle material, and disused sources returning for disposal. Here the transport is the short part, and package design approval, shipment approval, import and export authorisations, physical protection arrangements and advance notification set a lead time measured in weeks or months.
The second is time-bound: medical radioisotopes with short half-lives, where useful activity decays measurably during transit. Here the regulatory requirements are the same in kind but the whole movement is designed around elapsed time, and the answer is standing arrangements rather than shipment-by-shipment planning.
Which problem a consignment presents should be established before anything else, because it determines whether the plan is built around authorisations or around the clock.
Packaging and approvals
- Excepted and industrial packages cover the lower activity end, including low specific activity material and surface contaminated objects.
- Type A packages are designed to retain contents and shielding under normal conditions of transport, with contents limited by the A1 and A2 values for the radionuclide.
- Type B packages are designed to survive defined accident conditions and carry higher activities; their designs require competent authority approval, with Type B(M) requiring multilateral approval from each country involved.
- Type C packages apply to high-activity material carried by air, tested against more severe conditions than Type B.
- Fissile material adds criticality safety requirements and its own approvals on top of whichever package type applies.
- The transport index and, for fissile material, the criticality safety index limit how many packages may travel together and how they are positioned relative to people.
What the sector needs from a logistics plan
For approval-bound movements, the useful early question is which approvals already exist rather than which mode is fastest. A Type B(U) design approved in the country of origin and a Type B(M) requiring multilateral approval present very different schedules for otherwise similar cargo, and the difference is invisible from the freight side.
For time-bound movements, the plan is essentially a pre-arranged one: routings agreed in advance, standing approvals where the regime allows them, handovers rehearsed rather than improvised, and contingency routes identified before they are needed. Speed on the day cannot compensate for arrangements that were not made beforehand.
Both cases share one feature. The regulators involved are nuclear authorities rather than transport authorities, they work to their own timescales, and no amount of freight-side urgency changes them. Bringing the transport question forward into the programme or procurement schedule is worth more than any decision made later.
Common questions
Why do Class 7 shipments take so long to arrange?
Because the constraint is approval rather than transport. Package design approval, shipment approval, multilateral approval for Type B(M) and fissile material, import and export authorisations, physical protection and advance notification all sit with nuclear regulators working to their own timescales. The moving part is usually the shortest part.
Are medical isotopes regulated differently from industrial sources?
Not in kind — the same package types, indices and categories apply. They are a different planning problem, because short half-lives mean useful activity is lost to elapsed time. Those movements run on pre-arranged routings and standing approvals rather than being arranged shipment by shipment.
What is the difference between Type B(U) and Type B(M) for scheduling?
A great deal. B(U) designs are approved unilaterally by the country of origin; B(M) requires multilateral approval from each country involved, which introduces as many timescales as there are jurisdictions on the route. Two otherwise similar consignments can therefore have very different lead times.
Can a Class 7 consignment travel by air?
Yes, subject to the applicable package type and the air rules — with Type C required for high-activity material carried by air. As with any air movement of regulated cargo, state and operator variations apply along the routing and acceptance is confirmed carrier by carrier.
Sources and verification
Planning a movement like this?
Send the cargo, the two ends of the lane and the date. If we cannot move it ourselves we will tell you who can — same day.