Higher activity waste guidance
The Scottish Government advocates the use of long-term 'near
surface near site' storage facilities in Scotland. As intermediate
and high level waste both require shielding (the latter also
involving cooling), they are currently being stored at nuclear
installations until long term storage facilities become
available.
Some spent fuel from nuclear reactors is also reprocessed at
Sellafield, where potentially re-usable uranium and plutonium are
separated from radioactive waste. In the past, some intermediate
level waste was disposed of in a disposal shaft at Dounreay.
Guidance
Certain types of radioactive waste produced on nuclear licensed
sites need to be treated and packaged (a process referred to as
"conditioning"), in order to make them safe for long-term storage
and disposal. SEPA and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
jointly regulate this process on nuclear sites in Scotland. The
Environment Agency (EA) and HSE regulate nuclear sites in England
and in Wales.
Together with the HSE and EA, SEPA has published the first part
of its revised joint guidance to the nuclear industry. This
guidance explains to nuclear licensees the process they should
follow to obtain regulatory approval for their proposals for
conditioning higher activity wastes:
In updating our original guidance (published in 2005), we
consulted widely on proposed revisions:
For further background to this guidance,
visit: