Regulatory framework
UN Class 7: radioactive materials
Package types, activity limits, transport index and the approval routes that usually decide the schedule.
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.
Where the rules come from
Class 7 is unusual in that its technical rules are written by a body outside the transport system. The IAEA publishes the Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, and the modal instruments — ADR, RID, the IMDG Code and the ICAO Technical Instructions — adopt them rather than write their own.
The practical benefit is consistency: the package standard that applies on the road is the same one that applies on the vessel and in the aircraft hold. The practical cost is that the approvals sit with nuclear regulators rather than transport authorities, and their timescales are the ones that govern.
Alongside the transport rules sit national nuclear licensing, physical protection and security requirements, and for movements across borders, notification and sometimes prior consent. A Class 7 movement is therefore usually approval-bound rather than transport-bound.
Package types
- Excepted packages — very low activity, where the content limits are low enough that most of the requirements do not apply, though the package is still subject to basic provisions.
- Industrial packages, IP-1, IP-2 and IP-3 — for low specific activity material and surface contaminated objects, at increasing levels of robustness.
- Type A — designed to retain contents and shielding under normal conditions of transport, with content limited by the A1 and A2 activity values for the radionuclide concerned.
- Type B(U) and Type B(M) — designed to survive defined accident conditions, used above Type A content limits. B(U) is approved unilaterally by the country of origin; B(M) requires multilateral approval from each country involved.
- Type C — for high-activity material carried by air, tested against more severe accident conditions than Type B.
- Fissile packages — an overlay on the above where the material is fissile, adding criticality safety requirements and their own approvals.
Transport index, criticality safety index and categories
The transport index is the maximum radiation level at one metre from the package surface, expressed in millisieverts per hour and multiplied by one hundred. It is the number used to limit how many packages may be carried together and how they must be positioned relative to people.
The criticality safety index performs the equivalent function for fissile material, limiting the accumulation of packages so that a critical configuration cannot arise.
Packages are assigned a category — I-WHITE, II-YELLOW or III-YELLOW — from the transport index together with the radiation level at the package surface, with I-WHITE the lowest. The category determines labelling, and it feeds into vehicle placarding, segregation from people and film, and the limits on how much can be assembled in one conveyance.
What actually drives the schedule
For most Class 7 movements the transport itself is the short part. Design approval for the package, shipment approval where required, multilateral approval for Type B(M) and many fissile consignments, import and export authorisations, physical protection arrangements and advance notification to the authorities along the route are what set the lead time.
The exception is the material that cannot wait: medical radioisotopes with short half-lives, where a large fraction of the useful activity decays in transit and the whole movement is designed around elapsed time. That is a different planning problem from a Type B industrial source, and it is usually solved with pre-arranged routings and standing approvals rather than with speed on the day.
In both cases the useful early question is not which mode is fastest, but which approvals already exist and which have to be obtained.
Common questions
What is the difference between Type A and Type B packages?
Type A packages are designed to retain their contents and shielding under normal conditions of transport, and their contents are limited by the A1 and A2 activity values for the radionuclide. Type B packages are designed to survive defined accident conditions as well, which is what allows them to carry higher activities — and which is why their designs require competent authority approval.
What does the transport index actually measure?
The radiation level at one metre from the package surface, in millisieverts per hour, multiplied by one hundred. It is used to limit how many packages may travel together and how they are positioned relative to people, and together with the surface radiation level it sets the package category.
Why do Class 7 shipments take so long to arrange?
Because the constraint is usually approval rather than transport. Package design approval, shipment approval, multilateral approval for Type B(M) and fissile material, import and export authorisations, physical protection arrangements and advance notification all sit with nuclear regulators whose timescales are their own. The moving part is often the shortest part.
Are medical isotopes handled differently?
In regulatory terms they follow the same package and category rules. In planning terms they are a different problem, because short half-lives mean useful activity is lost to elapsed time. Those movements are normally built on pre-arranged routings and standing approvals rather than arranged shipment by shipment.
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.