Current Arrangements and Requirements for the Conditioning, Packaging and Storage of Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste: Joint RWMAC/NuSAC Report

FOREWORD

As Chairmen of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) and the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee (NuSAC) we were pleased to have been able to submit the findings of this joint study of the requirements for conditioning, packaging and storage of intermediate level radioactive waste (ILW) to Ministers and the Health and Safety Commission on 19 April 2002.

Our Committees first agreed to undertake this joint study in early 2001. NuSAC's interest in the management of ILW stemmed from a need to ensure the more immediate and localised safety of its treatment and storage on licensed nuclear sites. RWMAC's interest stemmed from the potential effects of its treatment, interim storage and eventual long-term management on the wider UK environment and the public.

A number of key perspectives guided the approach to the study. First, ILW needs to be suitably managed to ensure its safety, over both the more immediate and longer terms. There should be clear national policies for this. Such policy statements are necessary to guide the actions of the waste producers and owners, to ensure appropriate and consistent regulatory approaches, and to inform the public of the provisions to ensure their safety. The roles of all the bodies involved in the ILW management process need to be well defined and understood, and they need to work together effectively and efficiently to deliver appropriate solutions to the UK's ILW management problem.

Of course, reality does not always correspond to the ideal. The previous policy of deep underground disposal for the long-term management of the UK's ILW was brought effectively into question in March 1997, when the UK Nirex Ltd planning application to build a Rock Characterisation Facility, or underground laboratory, at Longlands Farm near Sellafield was finally turned down. All work at the site ceased shortly thereafter. The Government is currently reviewing its policies for the long-term management of ILW and other radioactive wastes through its "Managing Radioactive Waste Safety" consultation document initiative.

While a long-term management solution is being decided and implemented, ILW has to be managed in the interim, and there must be a clear interim management policy statement to cover this. Here, the Committees perceive a policy deficit, with relevant parts of the July 1995 Cm 2919 White Paper policy statement now being clearly in need of updating. Any such policy statement should, in RWMAC's and NuSAC's view, reflect the need to begin to carry forward treatment of some of the older legacy wastes held on the UK's nuclear sites more vigorously than has been the case in the past. Equally, there is also a need to balance treatment to make the waste safe in the shorter term with the need to ensure that it can also be appropriately managed over the long term.

The Government's proposal to create a Liabilities Management Authority (LMA), to assume responsibility for most of the UK's public sector civil nuclear liabilities, further serves to emphasise the need for clarity of policies and approaches. By introducing another major player, it further emphasises the need for roles and accountabilities to be clear, and for all those with responsibilities in the radioactive waste field to work together constructively towards the solution of ILW management problems. Here, the Committees see an important need for a "common purpose" approach in future.

This joint report by our two advisory committees considers all of the above issues, in what we believe to be a constructive manner, so as to suggest appropriate ways forward. We hope the advice will be considered helpful, and will be acted upon by both Government and the Health and Safety Commission.

Professor Charles Curtis OBE
Chairman of RWMAC

Professor John Head CBE
Chairman of NuSAC