Background to higher level waste guidance 

In 2001 and 2002, UK Government and the devolved administrations identified a number of concerns about the regulation of radioactive waste management. In response, SEPA consulted upon proposals to improve the regulation of the conditioning of intermediate level radioactive waste.

The Government accepted these proposals and we published our improved regulatory arrangements in 2003. These arrangements formalise the consultation process between the regulators, and allow SEPA and the Environment Agency to recover costs for providing advice to the Health and Safety Executive on the environmental aspects of waste conditioning proposals.

We then published joint guidance in 2005, to explain the improved regulatory arrangements. This guidance explained to nuclear site licensees the process to seek regulatory acceptance of their radioactive waste conditioning proposals, and described the information that we would expect to be submitted in any such proposal.

Since then, a number of policy developments have taken place which affect how we regulate radioactive waste management, and which required us to review and update our guidance. The main developments were:

• The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) published its final recommendations for the long-term management of higher activity wastes (high-level, intermediate-level, and some low-level radioactive waste that cannot be disposed of to existing facilities).
  
  
• UK Government and the devolved administrations responded to CoRWM’s recommendations, which established geological disposal coupled with a robust programme for interim storage as the UK’s policy for the long term management of higher activity wastes.
  
  
• UK Nirex Ltd’s functions and resources were transferred to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) Radioactive Waste Management Division, making the NDA the appropriate body to advise nuclear licensees on the required standards for conditioning their higher activity wastes.
  
  
• The Scottish Government announced that it does not support geological disposal, and instead favours a policy of long-term, near-surface, near-site storage for such wastes.

The original guidance also lacked clarity in key areas, and we concluded that clarity would be improved by separating our revised guidance into “Part I: the Regulatory Process” and “Part II: Technical Guidance”.

Part I has now been published, and it explains to nuclear licensees the process they should follow to obtain regulatory acceptance of their proposals for higher activity waste management. Part II will provide more detailed technical guidance on what the regulators expect to see in conditioning proposals submitted by nuclear licensees. This part of the guidance will be produced and published as a series of modules over the course of 2008 and 2009.