This paper concerns a SLA (second-law analysis) of transient radiative heat transfer in an absorbing, emitting and scattering medium. Based on Planck's definition of radiative entropy, transient radiative entropy transfer equation and local radiative entropy generation in semitransparent media with uniform refractive index are derived. Transient radiative exergy transfer equation and local radiative exergy destruction are also derived based on Candau's definition of radiative exergy. The analytical results are consistent with the Gouy-Stodola theorem of classical thermodynamics. As an application concerning transient radiative transfer, exergy destruction of diffuse pulse radiation in a semitransparent slab is studied. The transient radiative transfer equation is solved using the discontinuous finite element based discrete ordinates equation. Transient radiative exergy destruction is calculated by a post-processing procedure. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.