Several hundred thousand radioactive material packages are transported in France annually, representing a few percent of the dangerous goods traffic. Most (two-thirds) consist of radioisotopes for medical, pharmaceutical or industrial use. The diversity of these packages is considerable. Their radioactivity varies by more than twelve orders of magnitude, or from a few thousand becquerels (pharmaceutical packages) to millions of billions of becquerels (spent fuel), and their weight from a few kilograms to about a hundred tons.

The nuclear power cycle industry gives rise to the transport of many sorts of radioactive materials: uranium concentrates, uranium tetrafluoride, depleted, natural or enriched uranium hexafluoride, fresh or spent fuel assemblies containing uranium oxide or mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX), plutonium oxide, waste from power plants, reprocessing plants, CEA research centres, etc. (see diagram). The largest consignments concern about 300 shipments per year for fresh fuel, 450 for spent fuel, about 30 for MOX fuel and about 60 for plutonium oxide powder.

Since transport provisions are international, France is also a transit country for some of these shipments, for instance for spent fuel packages from Switzerland or Germany, bound for Sellafield in Great Britain, which are taken on board ship at Dunkirk.

Spent fuel transports from Germany stopped at the end of June 2005 in compliance with the agreements between the government and the electricity utilities of this country.

The main participants in transport arrangements are the consignor and the carrier. The consignor is responsible for package safety and accepts his responsibility by way of the dispatch note accompanying the package remitted to the carrier. Other participants are also involved: the package designer, manufacturer and owner and the carriage commission agent (authorised by the consignor to organise the transport operation).

For a radioactive material shipment to be carried out under good safety conditions, a stringent chain of responsibility has to be set up. So, for major transport operations:
- the consignor as nuclear licensee must be fully aware of the characteristics of the material to be transported, so that he can select packaging and specify transport conditions accordingly;
- the corresponding packaging must be designed and sized in accordance with conditions of use and current regulations. In most cases, a prototype is needed to carry out the tests prescribed by the regulations. Following this phase, the safety file is drawn up and submitted to the competent Authority, to back up the authorisation application;
- in cases where existing containers are used, their conformity with approved models has to be confirmed. In this context, the container owner must set up a maintenance system in conformity with that described in the safety file and the authorisation certificate;
- the container is sent to the consignor's site, where it will be loaded with the material for transportation. The consignor must carry out the inspections for which it is responsible (leaktightness, dose rate, temperature, contamination) on the loaded container prior to entry on a public road or railway track;
- the transport operation itself is organised by the carriage commission agent, who is responsible for obtaining requisite permits and complying with advance notice requirements on behalf of the consignor. He also selects the means of transport, the carrier and the itinerary, in compliance with the above-listed requirements;
- the actual transportation is entrusted to specialised firms, having the necessary permits and vehicles. The drivers of road vehicles in particular must be in possession of the training certificate required by the regulations.