Standards and Specifications for Packaging Waste in the UK

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. V. Barlow ◽  
J. D. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Waste Product ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Design Quality ◽  
Safe Management ◽  
Performance Specifications ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
The Uk

Abstract The role of Nirex is to provide the United Kingdom with safe and environmentally sound options for the long-term management of radioactive waste generated by the UK’s commercial, medical, research and defence activities. This includes all intermediate level waste and some low level waste (ILW and LLW). One of the key objectives of Nirex over the past 10 years or so, has been to ensure that when waste is packaged, it is in a form suitable for its future safe management including storage, transport, handling and potential disposal. Being responsible for development of future long-term waste management facilities, Nirex is uniquely placed to define standards and performance specifications for waste packages that include wasteform and container design, quality assurance and data recording requirements. In addition to the specifications, Nirex also provides detailed advice on the suitability of specific packaging proposals and plant designs against the foreseen requirements for future transport, handling, storage and potential disposal, as defined by the Nirex phased disposal concept. Where packaging proposals meet these requirements, Nirex is prepared to endorse the proposed approach through the issue of a ‘Letter of Comfort’. This approach has enabled the commencement of waste packaging operations with a high degree of confidence that the waste product will meet future waste management requirements, including potential disposal requirements. This paper provides a summary of the standards and specifications developed by Nirex for waste packages, and of the assessment process applied by Nirex in providing advice and endorsement of specific packaging proposals.

Generic Design Assessment of Long-Term Spent Fuel Storage for New Reactors in the UK

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Watson ◽  
I. Streatfield ◽  
C. Grundy ◽  
S. Price-Water ◽  
D. Glazbrook ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
Design Assessment ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Generic Design

In the UK the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency developed the Generic Design Assessment process in response to a request from the UK Government. The process allows the regulators to jointly assess new nuclear reactor designs, in advance of any site-specific proposals to build a nuclear power station. Two reactor types are currently being assessed within Generic Design Assessment: • AREVA and Electricite´ de France’s UK EPR®; • Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP1000®. This paper will present the outcome of the assessment of radioactive waste management within the Generic Design Assessment process. One aspect of particular interest is the management of spent fuel from proposed new reactors as the assessment is based on an assumption that it will be sent for disposal. Therefore the paper will specifically consider the management of spent fuel and how this affects the regulatory decisions. The paper will look at four aspects. The first of these is to give a short overview of the Generic Design Assessment process. This will be followed by a summary of the Generic Design Assessment Radioactive Waste Management assessment on the acceptability of: • The types of waste and spent fuel. • The plans for conditioning of the wastes. • The safety issues associated with short-term storage. • The safety issues associated with long-term storage. • The issues associated with the disposal of the wastes. • The safety issues associated with decommissioning the reactors. The third aspect will be to look at the work commissioned by the Office of Nuclear Regulation in support of the Generic Design Assessment of radioactive waste management and how this has affected the regulatory decisions. This work has looked at the long-term stability of spent fuel in storage and the potential faults associated with the storage and handling of the spent fuel. The paper will end with the main conclusions of the radioactive waste management assessment within Generic Design Assessment. Looking at how storage of spent fuel can affect transport, disposal and decommissioning and how work by licensees could alter these conclusions.

The Management of Historic Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste in the United Kingdom

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Horsley ◽  
Bruce McKirdy
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Storage Conditions ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste ◽  
The Uk

Nirex is the organisation responsible for long-term radioactive waste management in the UK. Our Mission is to provide the UK with safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. The United Kingdom has a significant legacy of long-lived intermediate level radioactive waste. This has arisen from 50 years of investigation and exploitation of nuclear technology. Some of the waste is stored in old facilities that do not provide the standards of containment that would be incorporated in modern facilities. Also the risk to people and to the environment from the inventory in these facilities will increase with time as the structures age and degrade, increasing the chance of containment failure. There is, therefore, a need to retrieve this raw waste and process and package it to make it demonstrably safe for continued storage, pending a decision on disposal of radioactive waste. This packaging should, as far as is practicable, be compatible with the UK long-term waste management strategy. Nirex has developed its Phased Disposal Concept for intermediate and low-level radioactive waste. Based on that concept, Nirex has developed waste package specifications and carries out assessments of waste packaging proposals. For legacy wastes it may not always practicable to demonstrate full compliance with all Nirex disposal criteria. This paper describes an approach, agreed between Nirex and BNFL, for managing these wastes. The proposed approach takes account of long-term waste management issues whilst recognising the need for timely improvement of storage conditions.

Metrics, Targets and Performance

2006 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 80-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Andrew Stevens ◽  
Lucy Stokes ◽  
Mary O'Mahony
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Acute Hospital ◽  
Performance Management System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Productivity Measure ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Uk

The setting and use of targets in the public sector has generated a growing amount of interest in the UK. This has occurred at a time when more analysts and policymakers are grasping the nettle of measuring performance in and of the public sector. We outline a typology of performance indicators and a set of desiderata. We compare the outcome of a performance management system — star ratings for acute hospital trusts in England — with a productivity measure analogous to those used in the analysis of the private sector. We find that the two are almost entirely unrelated. Although this may be the case for entirely proper reasons, it does raise questions as to the appropriateness of such indicators of performance, particularly over the long term.

The Nirex Coherent Approach to Achieving Criticality Safety

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Wood ◽  
M. Askarieh ◽  
P. Lock
Keyword(s):  
Control Process ◽  
Fissile Material ◽  
Objective Evidence ◽  
Safety Assessments ◽  
The Government ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
The Uk ◽  
High Level ◽  
Criticality Safety

The role of Nirex is to provide the UK with safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. This will include all intermediate-level waste and some low-level waste (ILW and LLW). Nirex has developed a Phased Disposal Concept based on conditioning the wastes then isolating them deep underground. Based on this phased disposal concept, Nirex advises waste producers on the conditioning and packaging of radioactive waste. The ILW and LLW which comprise the ‘reference volume’ of the Phased Disposal Concept contain approximately 5 t Pu-239 and 28 t U-235. Nirex’s work is based on a number of standards for safety and environmental protection set by the Government. Three different Regulators ensure application of these standards in the transport, operation and post-closure phases. Therefore a coherent approach to criticality safety is required. The approach to criticality safety begins by avoiding criticality resulting from the way in which the waste is packaged, by controlling the package design including the level of fissile material. The concept safety assessments will support a screening level of approximately 5 g Pu-239 equivalent. In specific cases where waste producers indicate that their proposed packages will not comply with the screening level, package-specific criticality safety assessments can be incorporated into the concept through the change control process. Engineering measures are available to prevent criticality for such time as the waste packaging affords a high level of containment. In the long term, however, after deterioration of the physical containment provided by the waste packages, there would be the possibility of movement of fissile material out of the waste packages and subsequent accumulation into new configurations which could in principle lead to a criticality. It is conceivable that a criticality could adversely impact on the performance of a repository after closure because, for example, of the heat that would be produced affecting the engineered barriers. It is therefore necessary to consider the post-closure criticality safety of the repository concept. Nirex is currently undertaking a programme of work on ‘understanding criticality under repository conditions’. The aim of the programme is to obtain a better understanding of the processes that would control the nature and magnitude of a criticality under the particular conditions of the concept repository. An essential component of demonstrating criticality safety is to ensure waste packagers develop operating arrangements, and provide objective evidence in the form of criticality compliance assurance documentation, to demonstrate how fissile material will be controlled to meet levels defined in concept criticality safety assessments. This paper will describe the coherent approach and the processes by which it is applied.

UKAEA, Dounreay: LLW Long Term Strategy — Developing the Options

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Broughton
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
External Stakeholder ◽  
Nuclear Decommissioning ◽  
Site Restoration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Scottish Executive

UKAEA’s mission at its Dounreay establishment in the north of Scotland is to restore the site so that it can be used for other purposes, with a minimal effect on the environment and requiring minimal attention by future generations. A Dounreay Site Restoration Plan (DSRP) has been produced. It sets out the decommissioning and radioactive waste management activities to restore the site within the next 60 years. Management of solid low level radioactive waste (LLW) that already exists, and that which will be produced as the DSRP progresses is an essential site restoration activity. Altogether around 150,000m3 (5.3Mft3) of untreated LLW could arise. This will then need to be treated, packaged and managed, the resulting volume being around 200,000m3 (7Mft3). A project to develop a long term strategy for managing all Dounreay’s existing and future LLW was initiated in 1999. The identification of complete solutions for management of LLW arising from the site restoration of Dounreay, an integrated reactor and reprocessing site, is novel in the UK. The full range of LLW will be encountered. UKAEA is progressing this specific project during a period when both responsibility and policy for UK decommissioning and radioactive waste management are evolving in the UK. At present, for most UK nuclear operators, there are no recognised routes for disposing of significant volumes of decommissioning LLW that has either lower or higher radioactivity than the levels set by BNFL for disposal at the UK national LLW disposal site at Drigg. A large project such as this has the potential to affect the environmental and social conditions that prevail in the area where it is implemented. Local society therefore has an interest in a project of this scale and scope, particularly as there could be a number of feasible solutions. UKAEA is progressing the project by following UK established practice of undertaking a Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) study. UKAEA has no preconceptions of the outcome and is diligently not prejudging issues prematurely. The BPEO process draws experts and non-experts alike into the discussions and facilitates a structured analysis of the options. However to permit meaningful debate those options have to be at first generated, and secondly investigated. This has taken UKAEA two and a half years in technical assessment of options at a cost of around £23/4M. The options and issues have been investigated to the depth necessary for comparisons and valid judgements to be made within the context of the BPEO study. Further technical evaluation will be required on those options that eventually emerge as the BPEO. UKAEA corporate strategy for stakeholder participation in BPEO studies is laid out in “Restoring our Environment”, published in October 2002. This was developed by a joint approach between project managers, Corporate Communications, and discussion with the regulators, government departments and Scottish Executive. An Internal Stakeholder Panel was held in March 2003. The Panel was independently facilitated and recorded. Eight Panel members attended who provided a representative cross-section of people working on site. Two External Stakeholder Panels were held in Thurso at the end of May 2003. A Youth Stakeholder Panel was held at which three sixth form students from local High Schools gave their views on the options for managing Dounreay’s LLW. The agenda was arranged to maximise interactive discussion on those options and issues that the young people themselves considered important. The second External Stakeholder Panel was based on the Dounreay Local Liaison Committee. Additional participants were invited in acknowledgement of the wider issues involved. As the use of Drigg is an option two representatives from the Cumbrian local district committee attended. From all the knowledge and information acquired from both the technical and stakeholder programmes UKAEA will build up the objective line of argument that leads to the BPEO emerging. This will be the completion of this first stage of the project and is planned for achievement in March 2004. Once the BPEO has been identified the next stage will be to work up the applications for the authorisations that will be necessary to allow implementation of the BPEO. Any facilities needed will require planning permission from the appropriate planning authority. The planning application could be called in by a Minister of State or a planning inquiry convened. During this next stage attention will be paid to ensure all reports and submissions are consistent and compliant with regulations and possible future legal processes. Stakeholder dialogue will continue throughout this next stage moving on from disussion of options to the actual developments. The objective will be to resolve as many issues stakeholders might raise prior to the submissions of applications and prior to the regulators’ formal consultation procedures. This will allow early attention to those areas of concern. Beyond the submission of applications for authorisations it is unwise to speculate as nuclear decommissioning will be then organised in the UK in a different way. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will most probably be in overall control and, particularly for Dounreay, the Scottish Executive may have developed its policy for radioactive waste management in Scotland.

scholarly journals Community Participation and Performance of Waste Segregation Program in Malacca: Towards Sustainable Waste Management

2019 ◽  
Vol 266 ◽  
pp. 02003
Author(s):  
Khalid Yusof ◽  
Faridah Ismail ◽  
Julitta Yunus ◽  
Norhafezah Kasmuni ◽  
Rohaslinda Ramele@Ramli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Solid Waste Management ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Housing Area ◽  
Waste Segregation ◽  
And Performance

This paper reviews the current practice and challenges of community participation on waste segregation program in Jasin Malacca since 2015-2017. The Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing (Act 672) which came into force on 1st September 2011, is Governments’ effort to provide a systematic, coordinated, effective and efficient solid waste management system in Malaysia including Malacca.. Since then, there has been significance increase on the amount recycle waste collected. However, the community participation on solid waste segregation and recycling program still at low level due to lack of awareness, attitude and exposure on the advantages of recycling in the long term. Thirty preliminary questionnaires were distributed randomly at resident’s housing area in Jasin and analysed through Average Index (AI) method. The result obtained shows the current challenges of the community in performing the waste segregation at source. From the result, further study will be conducted to discover new approach on promoting waste segregation which could provide the basis for success of 3R program in Malacca.

Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment as Part of a Stepwise Decision Making Process

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Atherton ◽  
Ann McCall
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
The Uk

Nirex is the organisation responsible for long-term radioactive waste management in the UK. Our Mission is to provide the UK with safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. One of the lessons that Nirex has learned from previous experience in the UK and internationally is the importance of developing due process for finding a long-term solution for radioactive waste management. We have been investigating best practice in this area and incorporating the findings into the work that we undertake. Projects which will have an impact on the environment are subject to EC Directives on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The EIA Directive has already been implemented into law within Member States while the SEA Directive has to be implemented by 2004. Nirex believes that radioactive waste management programmes will have to adhere to the principles outlined in the Directives. Nirex has been investigating how the frameworks set out in the Directives could be used to: • Develop a stepwise approach to decision making in the UK; • Engage stakeholders during the stepwise decision making; • Enable stakeholders’ issues and concerns to be addressed. This paper will outline how Nirex has been developing its work in these areas including reference to the Nirex Involvement Programme, which uses different consultation and dialogue techniques to enable people to engage with Nirex’s work programme.

Long-Term Issues for Indefinite Surface Storage of Intermediate and Some Low Level Radioactive Waste in the UK

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha King
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Radioactive Wastes ◽  
Management Option ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
Scoping Study ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Term Management

Nirex is the organisation responsible for long-term radioactive waste management in the UK. Our mission is to provide the UK with safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. Nirex is therefore researching various options for the long-term management of radioactive wastes/materials in order to identify the relevant issues with regard to the feasibility of options, and the research, development and stakeholder dialogue necessary to address these issues. The UK policy for the long-term management of solid radioactive waste is currently undergoing review. In September 2001, the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Devolved Administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland launched a public consultation on ‘Managing Radioactive Waste Safely’ (MRWS) [1]. The aim of this consultation was to start a process that will ultimately lead to the implementation of a publicly acceptable radioactive waste management policy. The MRWS programme of action proposed by Government includes a “stakeholder” programme of public debate backed by research to examine the different radioactive waste management options, and to recommend the preferred option, or combination of options. The options of storage above ground and underground are expected to be among the options examined. In the UK, radioactive wastes are currently held in surface stores, at over 30 locations in the UK, pending a decision on their long-term management. These stores were originally designed to have lifetimes of up to 50 years, but due to uncertainty regarding the longer term management of such wastes, extending the life of stores to 100 years is now being considered. This paper describes a preliminary scoping study to identify the long-term issues associated with surface storage of intermediate-level radioactive waste (ILW), and certain low-level waste (LLW) indefinitely in the UK. These wastes contain radionuclides with half lives that can range up to a million years or more, it was therefore assumed, for the purposes of this scoping study, that wastes would need to be managed over a period of at least one million years. An indefinite surface storage concept will require institutional stability and encompasses the principle of guardianship. It is based on a rolling present where each generation is required to monitor and, as necessary, repackage the waste and refurbish/replace storage buildings over a period of at least one million years. Each generation will also need to decide whether to continue with surface storage or implement another long-term management option. The aims of the scoping study were to: i) Investigate the implications of indefinite surface storage of waste packages through consideration of the facility specification, design and assessment. This framework is common to all Nirex radioactive waste management option studies, and provides a common basis for comparison. ii) Identify the social and ethical issues related to indefinite storage, including the principles and values that some stakeholders believe are met by the surface storage option.

Young people and substance misuse

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 601-607
Author(s):  
Irene Hernandez Sanchez
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Mental Performance ◽  
Illegal Drug Use ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Drunk Alcohol

In the UK in 2017, 9% of pupils aged 11–15 reported having drunk alcohol in the previous week, which is the lowest rate since the 1980s. Illegal drug use in the previous year reported by 15-year olds halved between 2001 and 2014. Despite these promising figures, adolescence is deemed to be decisive for future biopsychosocial development and performance. Initiation during adolescence may therefore have long-term implications, affecting mental performance and educational outcomes. This article focuses on patterns of drug misuse in teenagers. The warning signs of drug misuse and useful assessment tools are also introduced. For the purposes of this article, alcohol will be defined as a drug.

Ergonomics in Large Machinery Design

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (38) ◽  
pp. 707-710
Author(s):  
Barbara McPhee
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Specific Design ◽  
Safety Regulations ◽  
Heavy Equipment ◽  
Performance Specifications ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Machinery Design

Until recently in Australia it has been difficult to convince machinery manufacturers that ergonomics was worthy of their attention and action. Ergonomics evaluation of a range of machinery has been hampered by a lack of accessible, useable design criteria. Formal Standards, such as the Standard on Plant give guidelines on risk assessment but nothing specific in terms of ergonomics design guidelines. Most other Standards are out-of-date or are inconsistent with current practice in Australia. By necessity most occupational health and safety regulations and standards for heavy equipment define their design in terms of broad principles to reduce risks to health and safety. To assist designers, purchasers and users of heavy machinery in the application of ergonomics principles it may be worth developing useability standards such as those used for computer systems. These may be applied to generate more specific design and performance specifications using the consultative risk assessment process.

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