Office for Nuclear Regulation
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Joint regulatory guidance on radioactive waste management

What's new

Revised documents published November 2011.

These have been revised as a result of comments received since February 2010.

Contents

Background

Following a consultation exercise in 2002 the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Scottish Executive and the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) accepted a proposal from HSE, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), (collectively referred to as “the regulators”), aimed at improving the regulatory arrangements for conditioning ILW on nuclear licensed sites. The proposed arrangements aimed to bring the consideration of waste conditioning within the regulators' processes and were to be implemented through joint regulatory working arrangements. The regulators issued a Position Statement in 2003, which explained the improved regulatory arrangements and was informed by the outcomes from a twelve month review of the regulators' proposal with key stakeholders. (The Position Statement details the improvements to the regulatory process and the reasoning behind these changes, and should be consulted if further information on this topic is required).

In the Position Statement, the regulators set out a joint commitment to produce guidance explaining the improved regulatory process for evaluating proposals from licensees to condition ILW on nuclear licensed sites. The original joint guidance was issued in 2005 to fulfil this commitment.

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

In response to these changes, and requests from nuclear industry representatives for more detailed guidance, HSE, EA and SEPA revised their 2005 guidance and developed a series of joint guidance documents on the management of higher activity radioactive waste.

Joint Guidance on the management of higher activity radioactive waste on nuclear licensed sites

The guidance comes in three parts:

Fundamentals of the Management of Radioactive Waste (Published December 2007)

The introductory document provides background information for those who may not be familiar with the subject of radioactive waste management on nuclear licensed sites.

Overview and Glossary (published February 2010)

This document introduces the suite of documents that make up the Joint Guidance and provides a glossary of the abbreviations and terms used in the Joint Guidance.

Part 1: The regulatory process (published February 2010)

This document explains the regulatory process associated with the management of higher activity radioactive waste on nuclear licensed sites in the UK and describes regulatory expectations with respect to the production of radioactive waste management cases. This has been revised to ensure the terminology remains consistent with the Part 2 and 3 modules.

Part 2: Radioactive waste management cases (published February 2010)

This guidance describes regulatory expectations with respect to the production, content, maintenance and review of radioactive waste management cases (RWMCs), and provides links to further guidance on how the components that support an RWMC may be produced. Many comments on the trial version of the document were gratefully received and have been taken into account in the revised document.

Part 3: Technical guidance modules

These documents provide technical guidance on what the regulators expect to see in radioactive waste management cases, and are in modular format to facilitate development and future revision. The modules cover the following:

Part 3a: Waste minimisation, characterisation and segregation (published February 2010)

This document provides an overview of the relevant policy drivers, regulatory requirements and expectations relating to waste minimisation, characterisation and segregation during the management of higher activity radioactive waste on nuclear licensed sites. This version replaces the trial version previously on the webpage that was published inNovember 2008. Many comments on the trial version of the document were gratefully received and have been taken into account in the issued document.

Part 3b Conditioning and disposability (published November 2011)

This document provides an overview of the relevant policy drivers, regulatory requirements and expectations relating to waste conditioning and disposability during the management of higher activity radioactive wastes on nuclear licensed sites

Part 3c Storage of radioactive waste (published November 2011)

This document provides an overview of the relevant policy drivers, regulatory requirements and expectations relating to the storage of higher activity radioactive wastes on nuclear licensed sites.

Part 3d: Managing information and records relating to radioactive waste (published February 2010)

This document provides an overview of the relevant policy drivers, regulatory requirements and expectations relating to managing information and records about higher activity radioactive wastes on licensed nuclear sites. It covers existing national and international standards and practices for managing information. It also discusses some of the specific issues associated with managing information about radioactive waste over the long term. This version replaces the trial version previously on the webpage that was published in November 2008. Many comments on the trial version of the document were gratefully received and have been taken into account in the issued document.

Ongoing and future work

Towards the end of 2012 we will start a process of reviewing the guidance and its implementation. Comments will be welcome at any time and will be used in the review. Any such comments should be addressed to ONRenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk. Please reference "Joint Guidance" in the title of the message.

Updated 2012-12-18