Transporting Radioactive Material in Qatar: A Practical Guide
September 15, 2026
9 min read
DITEC Experts, Radiation Protection Team, ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting
Who this applies to
Transport is the part of the radiation licence that facilities think about last and get caught on first. The moment a sealed source, a nuclear gauge or a radioactive consignment leaves the gate of the licensed premises, a second set of rules applies — rules written for the road, not for the room.
In practice this catches four groups: soil and materials laboratories moving density gauges between sites every morning, NDT companies moving radiography projectors to a client's plant, medical and industrial facilities receiving a replacement source from abroad, and any facility returning a disused source to its supplier. The consignor's duties do not transfer to the driver, and they do not disappear because a third-party courier was hired.
Package types in plain terms
The international framework used in Qatar and across the Gulf is the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (SSR-6). Its central idea is simple: the more dangerous the content, the tougher the package must be, and the package — not the vehicle — is the primary safety barrier.
The package must be certified for what is inside it
A common and expensive mistake is reusing a package because it looks right. The package design has an approval tied to a specific content and activity; using a Type A container for a content that requires Type B, or shipping in a package whose certificate has expired, makes the consignment non-compliant no matter how carefully it is driven.
- Excepted package: very small quantities, minimal marking, but still a regulated consignment with paperwork.
- Industrial package: low specific activity material and surface contaminated objects, common in oil and gas work.
- Type A package: designed to survive normal conditions of transport, including minor mishandling. Most gauge and small source movements sit here.
- Type B package: designed to survive severe accident conditions — fire, impact and immersion. Used for high-activity sources such as radiography and teletherapy sources.
Labels and the transport index
Every package carries a label that tells anyone handling it how much radiation is around it. Two measurements decide which label goes on: the dose rate at the surface of the package, and the transport index — the maximum dose rate at one metre from the surface, expressed in millisievert per hour and multiplied by one hundred.
So a package reading 0.005 mSv/h at one metre has a transport index of 0.5. The number is not paperwork: it is what limits how many packages may travel together and how far they must be kept from people.
Measure, do not assume
The category is assigned from an actual measurement made on the package as loaded, with a calibrated survey meter, and recorded. A label carried over from the last shipment is one of the easiest findings an inspector can write.
Package categories
| Category | Surface dose rate | Transport index |
|---|---|---|
| I – WHITE | Not more than 0.005 mSv/h | Zero |
| II – YELLOW | Not more than 0.5 mSv/h | More than zero and not more than 1 |
| III – YELLOW | Not more than 2 mSv/h | More than 1 and not more than 10 |
| III – YELLOW under exclusive use | Higher surface rates are permitted only under the conditions set for exclusive use | More than 10 |
The vehicle, the driver and the documents
A compliant consignment is a package, a vehicle, a driver and a file that all match each other.
If something goes wrong on the road
Road accidents happen to compliant consignments too. What separates a manageable incident from a serious one is that the driver knows the first four steps without having to phone anyone to ask.
The first four steps
- Keep people away from the vehicle and do not let anyone pick anything up, whatever it looks like.
- Do not attempt to repack, move or hide a damaged package.
- Notify the facility's radiation protection officer and the authorities immediately, and hand over the transport document that is already in the cab.
- Stay at the scene, upwind if there is fire or smoke, until the facility's response team or the authorities arrive.
Frequently asked questions
We only move the gauge a few kilometres. Do the rules still apply?
Yes. The regulations are about the consignment and the public road, not the distance. A ten-minute trip between two sites in the same industrial area is transport in the full regulatory sense, and it is where most gauge incidents actually happen.
Can an ordinary driver with a dangerous goods card carry sources?
General dangerous goods awareness is not the same as Class 7 training. A driver moving radioactive material needs training specific to it: what the labels mean, why the package must not be opened, how to keep distance, and what to do at an accident.
Who is responsible if we use a shipping company?
The consignor keeps the duties of classification, packaging, labelling, documentation and declaration. Hiring a carrier transfers the driving, not the compliance, and a regulator dealing with a non-compliant consignment will come back to the licensed facility that sent it.
What about receiving a source from abroad?
An import needs its approval in place before the shipment moves, and the receiving facility must be licensed to hold that source and ready to take delivery. Sources that arrive before the paperwork is complete sit at the port as an unplanned storage problem, at the facility's cost.
Training and support
ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting runs approved training for drivers and staff handling radioactive material transport in Qatar, and advises facilities on classification, package selection, documentation and the transport section of their radiation protection programme.