Class 7 — Radioactive material
Material with a specific activity above the exempt values in 49 CFR 173.436.
What actually falls under Radioactive material
Class 7 covers material whose specific activity exceeds the exempt values set out in the table at 49 CFR 173.436 — a threshold specifically designed to exclude the trace radioactive content found in some smoke detectors, certain ceramic glazes, and vintage luminous-dial instruments from regulation entirely. That design is why this class has essentially no footprint in consumer e-commerce: legitimately regulated radioactive material (medical isotopes, industrial gauges, certain research reagents) moves through specialist radioactive-materials logistics with dedicated licensing, not a marketplace listing, and every parcel carrier referenced on this site treats the class as review-required or outright prohibited. A product a seller suspects might be Class 7 — most often an antique instrument with a luminous dial — is almost always below the exempt activity threshold and not regulated at all, but that determination requires an actual activity measurement, not a guess from the product's age or appearance.
Carrier acceptance
The published default for this class. A UN-specific rule can override it — lithium batteries and dry ice are both Class 9 and are treated quite differently.
| Carrier | Ground | Air | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS | review required | review required | Radioactive material only under a specific radioactive-materials agreement. |
| FedEx | review required | review required | Radioactive material only under a FedEx radioactive-materials approval. |
| USPS | prohibited | prohibited | Radioactive material is non-mailable other than a narrow set of excepted-quantity articles. |
| Amazon FBA | prohibited | prohibited | Radioactive material is not accepted. |
Carrier positions encode each carrier's published default as of the ruleset date. Tariffs change more often than regulations, and a contracted shipper may hold different terms — confirm against the carrier's current guide before the first shipment of a new item.
Encoded entries (0)
No entries in this class are encoded yet. The table covers the substances that appear in commercial parcel and e-commerce shipping; a classification request that lands here returns needs_review rather than a guess.
Classify a specific product in this class
The class alone does not give you a shipping paper. Send the actual product to POST /api/classify and you get the UN number, the proper shipping name, the packing group and every carrier position for that specific item.
Questions
- What is Class 7 — Radioactive material?
- Material with a specific activity above the exempt values in 49 CFR 173.436.
- Does Class 7 — Radioactive material have a packing group?
- No. Entries in this class carry no packing group; the class or division alone determines the packaging and labelling requirements. Assigning a packing group here is a common error on shipping papers.
- Can I ship Class 7 — Radioactive material by air?
- UPS: review required; FedEx: review required; USPS: prohibited; Amazon FBA: prohibited. These are published carrier defaults, not regulatory limits — a contracted shipper may hold different terms, and the regulation may permit what the carrier declines.