ABSTRACT
It is something of a paradox that the materials whose transport has generated most controversy account for only a small proportion of the total number of movements of radioactive materials. These include radioisotopes of one sort or another, which account for by far the largest number of journeys made by radioactive materials. They are used widely in medicine, industry and research and even in the home. On a personal level, they move around on the wrists of millions of people whose watches have luminous dials – the radioisotope tritium provides the glow in luminous paint. At the other extreme, radioisotopes (plutonium-238) have travelled to the edge of the solar system supplying power for spacecraft like Voyager-2.
