RWMAC's Annual Report for 2000-2001

Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Member of Parliament Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ross Finnie, Member of the Scottish Parliament Minister for Environment and Rural Development Sue Essex, Assembly Member Minister for the Environment, National Assembly for Wales I have the honour, on behalf of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee, of submitting our Twenty First Annual Report. Professor Charles Curtis OBE Chairman October 2001

Chapter 1

The RWMAC Work Programme

Introduction

1.1 Organisations such as the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), which is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), are required to prepare Annual Reports on their activities. This is the twenty first RWMAC Annual Report.

1.2 The report covers work undertaken since RWMAC's Twentieth Annual Report ¹. Traditionally, the period covered by the Committee's Annual Reports has been 1 June of one year to 31 May of the next. The Twentieth Annual Report, published in November 2000, incorporated RWMAC's work during the late summer of that year. This Annual Report covers the broad period from 1 August 2000 to 31 July 2001 although, in reality, the way in which the description of RWMAC's activities is divided between the two reports is not always precise.

Sponsorship and remit of RWMAC

1.3 RWMAC is an independent body of persons with appropriate expertise and experience that was first established in 1978 to advise the Secretaries of State for the Environment, Scotland and Wales, on policies and practices for the management of civil radioactive wastes.

1.4 Following the introduction of UK devolution arrangements in 1999, and the creation of the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales, RWMAC assumed the status of a Jointly Established Body (JEB). JEBs are bodies that are sponsored jointly by a department in Westminster, the Scottish Executive, and the National Assembly for Wales.

1.5 At the time of the last RWMAC Annual Report, the Westminster department responsible for radioactive waste management policy was the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). Following the General Election in June 2001, this policy responsibility was transferred to a newly-created department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Thus, at the present time, RWMAC reports to the following Ministers: the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; the Minister for Environment and Rural Development in the Scottish Executive, and the Minister for the Environment in the Welsh Assembly.

1.6 Following devolution, RWMAC's sponsoring Ministers agreed that the financing and administration of the Committee should be handled centrally, originally through DETR and subsequently through Defra.

1.7 RWMAC's terms of reference, and a list of its current membership, are set out in Annex 1.

RWMAC's work programme during 2000-2001

1.8 Under arrangements agreed at the time of the last Financial Management and Policy Review (FMPR) of RWMAC ², it was agreed that a meeting be held, normally annually, between the RWMAC Chairman and the relevant Defra Minister, supported by Scottish and Welsh representatives. This meeting would review progress over the past year and agree a work programme and deadlines for the coming year. Work commissioned in this way is termed the "Ministerial work programme".

1.9 However, because RWMAC is an independent body, the arrangements resulting from the FMPR also allow the Committee to undertake work on issues "where no specific request for advice has been made, but which in the Committee's view are, or may become, matters of concern [to its sponsoring Ministers]". This element of work is known as the "RWMAC own work programme". By agreement, the RWMAC Chairman informs sponsoring Ministers of the Committee's intention to undertake work under the RWMAC own programme.

1.10 No meeting between RWMAC and sponsoring Ministers was held during 2000. Nor - probably on account of the need to focus on the Government's review of future policy, now published as "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" ³ - did Ministers commission the Committee to undertake a work programme for 2000-2001. During that period, RWMAC finalised and published all the items of its agreed 1999-2000 programme (see footnote ^* below) and two RWMAC own programme items (see paragraph 1.12). There has also been a full programme of Government and regulatory consultations during the year, many of which were on crucial radioactive waste management policy issues. This means that the Committee's work programme has been a heavy one during the course of the past 12 months.

1.11 The key item of the 1999-2000 programme in respect of which work was carried over and completed in the period covered by this Annual Report was a major study on the Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) radioactive waste management practices ⁴. The advice was submitted to Ministers in May 2001 and published in July 2001. The findings of the study are discussed in more detail in chapter 6. With delivery of this item, the Committee's 1999-2000 work programme was completed.

1.12 During the first six months of 2001, RWMAC also provided advice on two other important topics which were not formally commissioned by its sponsoring Ministers, but initiated by the Committee as part of the RWMAC own work programme. These were a review of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority's (UKAEA's) plan for restoring the Dounreay nuclear site and a review of the processes of formulating policy for the long-term management of solid radioactive wastes.

1.13 RWMAC has been interested in radioactive waste management issues at Dounreay for a number of years. The Committee's Twentieth Annual Report ¹ included its response to the Government's "Making the Right Choice" consultation on the management of Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) fuel at the site. In October 2000, UKAEA published the Dounreay Site Restoration Plan (DSRP) which, in light of its ongoing interest, RWMAC felt it important to review and offer comments upon. The outcome of this review, and the advice submitted to Ministers, are discussed in chapter 7.

1.14 The RWMAC advice on the process for the formulation of future policy for the long-term management of the UK's solid radioactive waste ⁵ is discussed in chapter 3. It is the latest stage of work by the Committee on the processes needed to underpin decision-making on radioactive waste management policy. The work began with a RWMAC report on the means by which a sufficient consensus of views on long-term management issues might be established. This "consensus-building" report was published in April 1999 ⁶. The Committee is pleased to see reference to its latest advice ⁵ in the recently-published Government consultation paper "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" ³.

1.15 In addition to its formal studies, RWMAC is routinely asked to provide, comments on a range of Government and regulatory body consultations. RWMAC sees such responses as an important way of making its views on policy and regulatory issues known.

1.16 The last year has seen the issue of a number of important Government consultation documents. These include, for example, consultations on statutory guidance to the Environment Agency (EA) on the regulation of discharges into the environment from licensed nuclear sites ⁷ and the Government's Financial Management and Policy Review of EA, of which the Stage 1 report has now been published ⁸. In addition, there have been consultations by both EA and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on proposals to dispose of radioactive waste under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 (RSA93) that threw up important policy issues. These included, for example, control of technetium-99 discharges from Sellafield (EA's decision on which was published in September 2001) ⁹ and regulation of radioactive discharges from Devonport Royal Dockyard ¹⁰. In all, RWMAC responded to 14 Government and regulatory body consultations during the period covered by this Annual Report. The issues covered are discussed at various points throughout this Annual Report, notably chapters 9 and 10.

1.17 RWMAC Members have also continued to participate in the BNFL stakeholder dialogue, organised by the Environment Council. As representatives of the Committee, Members have taken part in MoD's stakeholder process for consideration of the options for the long-term management of the UK's decommissioned nuclear submarines (the "ISOLUS" study - see chapter 6), and the Safegrounds project on the clean up of civil and military nuclear sites (chapter 8). Several Members attended the Food Standards Agency's Consultative Exercise on Dose Assessments in October 2000 at the University of Sussex (see chapter 10). The RWMAC Chairman has spoken at several international conferences.

Work foreseen for 2001-2002

1.18 The current RWMAC Chairman, Professor Charles Curtis, wrote to Ministers on 6 November 2000 reporting the Committee's work over the previous year and suggesting a number of possible items for the 2001-2002 work programme that it believed would be of value to Ministers. In further letters, dated 18 April and 2 July 2001, Professor Curtis narrowed the range of potential studies and advised Ministers of two other studies that the Committee proposed to undertake jointly with another national advisory committee, the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC). The possible work programme was discussed with the Minister for Environment, Michael Meacher, at a meeting on 12 July 2001. What follows is RWMAC's understanding of the outcome of that meeting, which was being discussed with RWMAC's other sponsoring Ministers at the time of preparation of this report.

1.19 The three items that RWMAC understands are of greatest interest to Ministers are studies of:

• management arrangements for solid low level radioactive waste (LLW), including the two authorised repositories in the UK - the British Nuclear Fuels plc facility at Drigg and the UKAEA facility at Dounreay;
• the accuracy and coverage of the UK Radioactive Waste Inventory;
• application, as part of decisions on the management of radioactive wastes, of the "best practicable means" (BPM) and best practicable environmental option (BPEO) criteria.

1.20 The joint studies with NuSAC that have been proposed for inclusion in the Ministerial work programme are:

• a study of the requirements for the conditioning, packaging and storage of the UK's intermediate level radioactive waste (ILW);
• a review of the regulation of civil nuclear safety and radioactive waste management in the UK.

1.21 At the time of preparation of this Annual Report, the first of these two joint studies had commenced, while the precise coverage of the "regulatory review" was still being discussed with the two Committees' sponsoring departments.

1.22 The position set out above therefore constitutes the starting point from which RWMAC has commenced planning of its work during 2001-2002. Other items, and Government and regulatory consultation responses are, as in previous years, likely to be incorporated as the year proceeds.

References

1. Twentieth Annual Report of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, November 2000.

2. Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee : Financial Management and Policy Review - Report of the Steering Committee, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, March 1997.

3. Managing Radioactive Waste Safely : Proposals for Developing a Policy for Managing Solid Radioactive Waste in the UK, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs et al, September 2001.

4. The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee's Advice to Ministers on the Ministry of Defence's Radioactive Waste Management Practices, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, July 2001.

5. The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee's Advice to Ministers on the Process for Formulation of Future Policy for the Long-Term Management of UK Solid Radioactive Waste, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, September 2001.

6. The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee's Advice to Ministers on the Establishment of Scientific Consensus on the Interpretation and Significance of the Results of Science Programmes into Radioactive Waste Disposal, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, April 1999.

7. Statutory Guidance for the Environment Agency on the Regulation of Radioactive Discharges into the Environment from Licensed Nuclear Sites : a Consultation Paper, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, October 2000.

8. Environment Agency - Financial Management and Policy Review, Stage 1 Report, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, August 2001.

9. Proposed Decision on the Future Regulation of Technetium-99 Discharges from British Nuclear Fuels plc Sellafield into the Irish Sea, Environment Agency for England and Wales, September 2001.

10. Explanatory Document and Draft Authorisation to Assist Public Consultation on the Application by Devonport Royal Dockyard Limited to Dispose of Radioactive Wastes from Devonport Royal Dockyard, Environment Agency, March 2001.

* Namely, the Ministry of Defence's arrangements for dealing with its radioactively contaminated land (published in August 2000), an assessment of the options for long-term management of spent Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) fuel at Dounreay (advice submitted to the Department of Trade and Industry in June and August 2000), the problems of "small users" of radioactive materials (published in September 2000), and the radioactive waste implications of spent fuel reprocessing (November 2000).