In 2006 the Government’s response to recommendations by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), established in UK policy, 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) with the transfer of UK Nirex Ltd’s (Nirex’s) roles to the NDA.
To take this into account, HSE, EA and SEPA have begun to revise their joint guidance on this topic, taking the opportunity to clarify a number of areas of the original guidance published in 2005.
The revision of the guidance is in two parts.
Joint Guidance on Radioactive Waste Management - Part 1: The Management of Higher Activity Radioactive Waste on Nuclear Licensed Sites focuses upon the regulatory process and was published on 14 December 2007.
In response to comments received in stakeholder engagement we have also produced an introductory document that aims to provide background information for those who may not be familiar with the subject of radioactive waste management on nuclear licensed sites.
This will provide technical guidance on what the regulators expect to see in conditioning proposals, and will be modular in format to facilitate development and future revision. The modules will cover the following:
The Part II Guidance will be issued as each module is completed. Until these modules are available, anyone interested should refer to the following documents for advice:
We received many comments on the trial use version of the Part 1 Guidance for which we are grateful. A summary of these comments and how we took them into account is given in the document.
While the formal stakeholder engagement process on Part 1 is finished we would welcome any comments that may help improve this in the future. These should be directed to the Nuclear Directorate contact point at NDenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk referencing "Joint Guidance" in the title of the message. We will be conducting further stakeholder engagement processes as we develop part 2 of the Guidance.