DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (News Release
ref:91/07) issued by The Government News Network on 26 March 2007
A new UK policy
for managing solid low level radioactive waste has been published
by the UK Government and the devolved administrations today.
The policy, which follows a public consultation in 2006, puts
proving public safety at the forefront of dealing with low level
radioactive waste (LLW), and sets out a more flexible and
pragmatic approach to managing LLW. It also stresses the need to
minimise the amount of waste created, and recognises the need to
involve the public in developing and authorising LLW management plans.
The new policy statement outlines the priorities for managing low
level radioactive waste responsibly and safely, by:
* Allowing greater flexibility in managing the wide range of LLW
that already exists and will arise in the future;
* Maintaining a focus on safety, with arrangements supported by
the independent regulators, including the Health and Safety
Executive and the Environment Agencies;
* Seeking to first minimise the amount of low level waste created
before looking at disposal options, through avoiding generation,
minimising the amount of radioactive substances used, recycling
and reuse;
* Creating a UK-wide strategy for managing low level waste from
the nuclear industry, including at what point in the future a
replacement (or replacements) for the national disposal facility
near Drigg in Cumbria might be required and planned, to be
developed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
* Initiating a UK-wide strategy for the management of non-nuclear
LLW. The first step will be for the Government, in conjunction
with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, to undertake a study
that gives a clear picture of future low level waste from the
non-nuclear sector;
* Emphasising the need to involve communities and the wider
public in developing and delivering LLW management plans.
Ian Pearson, UK Minister for Environment and Climate Change, said:
"Today's policy announcement will ensure that we have
safe and appropriate disposal routes for low level radioactive
waste in the future. It will ensure that they are flexible enough
to accommodate the wide range of types and radioactivity of wastes
that result from both nuclear and non-nuclear activity.
"The review of how we manage low level radioactive waste
complements the ongoing work the Government is carrying out on the
policy for managing higher activity radioactive wastes under the
Managing Radioactive Waste Safely programme, following
recommendation made by the Committee on Radioactive Waste
Management (CoRWM) in July 2006."
Unlike higher-activity wastes, the methods for managing and
disposing of LLW in the long term already exist. However the
review of managing LLW dealt with a number of new issues, including:
* The decommissioning and clean-up programme being undertaken by
the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which will greatly increase
the amount of LLW generated over the coming decades;
* The lack of long-term capacity at the national LLW disposal
facility near Drigg to deal with this waste;
* The diminishing availability of other routes for dealing with LLW;
* The increasing difficulty of finding small-scale treatment and
disposal routes for the least radioactive wastes, which are very
important for the non-nuclear sectors.
Of the total predicted future radioactive waste that will be
generated in the future, LLW accounts for about 90 per cent by
volume and only 0.00003 per cent of its total radioactivity.
Notes to Editors
1. A copy of Ian Pearson's statement to Parliament, and the
full policy statement, can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/radioactivity/waste/index.htm.
2. The range of radioactivity of LLW can vary by almost five
orders of magnitude (that is, from a relative level of one to
almost 100,000).
3. LLW can occur in a wide variety of chemical and physical
forms. Cleaning materials and clothing contaminated when handling
radioactive materials is often classified as LLW, as is soil and
building rubble resulting from decommissioning activities on sites
(both nuclear sites and other sites like hospitals, where
radioactive materials have been produced or treated).
4. Some of the chemical and physical forms in which LLW arises
can be burned in incinerators
5. Disposal of radioactive wastes is closely controlled by the
environment agencies, with similar standards applied to either
disposal at engineered repositories like the one near Drigg or to
landfill. These standards imply that using conservative
assumptions the maximum possible radiation dose to a member of the
public would be 300 microsieverts per year. By comparison, natural
background radiation in the UK ranges from 2000 to 7000
microsieverts a year - ten times the maximum dose allowable by the
environment agencies.
6. In practice, the combination of low level activity in any
waste and the regulatory requirements to minimise their impacts
means that the actual dose to any member of the public would be
likely to be around 30 microsieverts per year - around the same as
the radiation a person would receive on a one-way flight from
London to New York.
Public enquiries 08459 335577;
Press notices are available on our website http://www.defra.gov.uk
Defra's aim is sustainable development
To subscribe or unsubscribe to Defra's mailing list go to:
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/
Once on the GNN website see Sign up
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
Website
http://www.defra.gov.uk