In 2006 the Government’s response to recommendations by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), established in England and Wales, that deep geological disposal is the preferred route for the long-term management of radioactive waste that is not suitable for near-surface disposal. It also gave the responsibility for delivering the programme for a deep geological repository to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The Scottish Government have a policy of long term interim, near site, near surface safe and secure storage.
To take this into account, HSE, the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have developed a series of joint guidance on the management of higher activity radioactive waste. The guidance comes in two parts (previously referred to as Part I and Part II):
As part of the ongoing process of producing joint guidance, three modules of technical guidance have been published for trial use and comment. (November 2008)
Comments are welcomed on these documents by 30 January 2009 and should be sent to NDenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk. Please reference "Joint Guidance" in the title of the message.
These documents will be trialed by regulators in their discussions with licensees for the purpose of testing the implications of their application. Observations from this exercise will be used to revise the documents before they are finally issued.
Joint Guidance on Radioactive Waste Management - Part I: The Management of Higher Activity Radioactive Waste on Nuclear Licensed Sites. (published December 2007).
In response to comments received to this guidance, an introductory document was produced to provide background information for those who may not be familiar with the subject of radioactive waste management on nuclear licensed sites.
Many comments on the trial use version of the Part 1 Guidance were gratefully received. A summary of the comments and how they were taken into account has also been produced.
While the formal stakeholder engagement process on Part 1 is finished, comments are still welcome (by 30 January 2009) that may help improve this guidance in the future. Comments should be sent to NDenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk referencing "Joint Guidance – Part I" in the title of the message.
These documents provide technical guidance on what the regulators expect to see in radioactive waste management cases, and will be modular in format to facilitate development and future revision. The modules will cover the following:
Guidance will be issued for trial use and comment as each module is completed. Until these modules are available, anyone interested should refer to the following documents for advice:
We are currently considering how to present this topic which will, of necessity, cover more than just higher activity radioactive wastes. Brief guidance on this is included in the module on waste minimisation, characterisation and segregation.
We expect to be able to publish the last two technical modules, conditioning and disposability and storage of radioactive waste, for trial use and comment by late Spring 2009. Around this time, subject to further consideration, we may publish joint guidance on integrated waste strategies for trial use and comment.
Subject to comments received final versions of those documents published for trial use in spring 2009 should be published in their final version by Autumn 2009.