Once the radioactive waste is sorted, identified and accepted by ONDRAF/NIRAS, their transport, from the site of the producer to the site of Belgoprocess in Dessel, can take place.


Strict safety standards

In Belgium, ONDRAF/NIRAS organises the transport of radioactive waste, but subcontracts the actual task to specialised companies. Since the publication of the royal decree of 20 July 2001, which came into effect on 30 August 2001 (see text in French or Dutch on the website of the AFCN/FANC), it is the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (AFCN/FANC) which delivers the required transport licences to these companies.

The regulation in force in Belgium relating to the transport of radioactive substances is the ADR regulation that refers, as far as radioactive waste is concerned, to the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The carriers must use appropriate packaging to guarantee containment of the radionuclides during transportation and to ensure adequate shielding against radiation. These compulsory radiation protection measures guarantee the same level of protection for all transports of radioactive materials, irrespective of whether low-, intermediate- or high-level waste is involved.

Before departure and upon arrival, all carriers are required to have each consignment of radioactive substances checked for external contamination and for radiation.

Appropriate arrangements

Non-processed and non-conditioned low-level waste is collected in plastic bags, polythene bottles or small 30-litre drums - which are in turn placed in containers with a capacity of 1 m³ (see photo) ­ or in metal 200-litre drums.

Low-level waste is transported by road on ordinary trucks that have no shielding or only light shielding.

Medium-level waste is also transported in normal trucks, but equipped with specific lead shielding.


High-level vitrified waste is poured into stainless steel drums (see our section "processing"). This process takes place at the COGEMA reprocessing plant in La Hague (France). The drums are returned to Belgium by rail in a special transport flask: a large steel container with 20-cm thick walls. In the Mol station, the transport flask is transferred on a truck and transported to a specially designed storage building on the Belgoprocess site (building 136).

(Illustration: the transport flask containing 28 canisters
of vitrified waste, in the receivinghall of building 136)


For more information about the transport of high-level vitrified waste, see French our Dutch.


If you don't understand a term, please refer to our glossary.