Legitimacy as the Key: The Long-Term Management of Radioactive Waste in the UK

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Murray ◽  
David Wild ◽  
Ann McCall ◽  
John Mathieson ◽  
Ben Russell
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Term Management

This paper provides an overview of the current status of radioactive waste management in the UK from the point of view of Nirex, the organisation responsible for providing safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. Essentially, it argues that: • the waste exists and must be dealt with in an ethical manner; • legitimacy is the key to public acceptance of any attempt to solve the waste issue; and • credible options and a new political will allow, and indeed, compel this generation to deal with it. In doing this, the paper takes account of a number of recent announcements and ongoing developments in the UK nuclear industry, in particular: • the recent announcement that Nirex is to be made independent of industry; • the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Devolved Administrations’ Managing Radioactive Waste Safely consultation exercise; • the creation of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management to oversee the consultation; • the creation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to manage the civil nuclear site clean-up programme; • proposals for improved regulation of Intermediate Level Waste conditioning and packaging; and • proposals by the European Commission for a new radioactive waste Directive. These institutional and policy changes amount to an evolution of the back-end of the fuel cycle that represents the most radical transformation in the UK nuclear industry for many years. In a large part, this is a transformation made necessary by past failures in trying to impose a solution on the general public. Therefore, in order for these changes to result in a successful long-term radioactive waste management programme, it is necessary to pay as much attention to political and social concerns as scientific and technical ones. Primarily it is crucial that all parties involved act in an open and transparent manner so that the decisions made achieve a high degree of legitimacy and thus public acceptance. Crucially too, the problem must be framed in the correct term — that the waste exists irrespective of the future of nuclear power and that this is an issue that must be addressed now. Thus there is a legitimacy of purpose and scope in moving forward that addresses the ethical imperative of this generation dealing with the waste. Put together with the action the government is taking to create the necessary institutional framework, Nirex believes that for the first time in a generation the UK has the building blocks in place to find a publicly acceptable, long-term solution for radioactive waste.

Current Status of the Radioactive Waste Management Programme in Spain

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Lang-Lenton Leo´n ◽  
Emilio Garcia Neri
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Management Programme ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
Term Management

Since 1984, ENRESA is responsible of the radioactive waste management and the decommissioning of nuclear installations in Spain. The major recent challenge has been the approval of the Sixth General Radioactive Waste Plan (GRWP) as “master plan” of the activities to be performed by ENRESA. Regarding the LILW programme, the El Cabril LILW disposal facility will be described highlighting the most relevant events especially focused on optimizing the existing capacity and the start-up of a purpose–built disposal area for VLLW. Concerning the HLW programme, two aspects may be distinguished in the direct management of spent fuel: temporary storage and long-term management. In this regards, a major challenge has been the decision adopted by the Spanish Government to set up a Interministerial Committee for the establishment of the criteria that must be met by the site of the Centralized Intermediate Storage (CTS) facility as the first and necessary step for the process. Also the developments of the long-term management programme will be presented in the frame of the ENRESA’s R&D programme. Finally, in the field of decommissioning they will be presented the PIMIC project at the CIEMAT centre and the activities in course for the decommissioning of Jose´ Cabrera NPP.

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.

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.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Institutional Conditions for the Development of the Nuclear-Industrial Complex and Radioactive Waste Management in Ukraine

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
V. Shevchenko ◽  
◽  
А. Mukhachev ◽  
V. Lyashenko ◽  
N. Osadcha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Process Development ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Natural Uranium ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
The Creation

Trends in the development of the nuclear-industrial complex and radioactive waste management are analyzed. Among the main problems of development of the nuclear-industrial complex and radioactive waste management are the imperfection of the legal framework, lack of investment. The contribution of the nuclear industry of Ukraine to the creation of gross domestic product is not significant, but its role is important in ensuring economic security and achieving energy independence of the country. The state of the nuclear-industrial complex in other countries of the world has been studied. It is expedient to use an innovative approach for the development of the nuclear-industrial complex. This approach is presented as a set of three interrelated blocks, namely: methodological and informational; diagnostic and orientation; evaluation and procedural. Directly, the nuclear-industrial complex, which is a leading link in the nuclear-energy complex of Ukraine, can be considered a complex sector of the national economy, including: uranium production, which creates a basis for meeting the needs of nuclear power plants in natural uranium in the medium and long term; zirconium production, which involves the establishment of zirconium production. The results of the implementation of the regional program for the development of the nuclear-industrial complex should include the following: increasing the competitiveness of enterprises in key strategic industries: nuclear, mining, metallurgy, chemical and mechanical engineering; increasing the innovation of production through the development of scientific potential of the region, the commercialization of the scientific process; development of enterprises on the basis of the latest technologies of industrial waste processing, including for the development of the region's infrastructure; reduction of man-caused load on the environment; creating more attractive and diverse jobs; ensuring the stabilization of social processes in the mining regions. One of the directions of modernization of the nuclear-industrial complex of Ukraine is the creation of SMR reactors (Smallmodularreactor) and its installation instead of the existing ones. Their production must be carried out at Ukrainian enterprises. The necessity of increasing the volume of uranium production, the level of its enrichment and at the same time solving environmental issues on waste disposal is substantiated.

The Government of Canada’s Programs for Radioactive Waste Cleanup and Long-Term Management

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave McCauley ◽  
Douglas Metcalfe ◽  
Marcia Blanchette ◽  
Tom Calvert
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Radioactive Wastes ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Uranium Mine ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Term Management

The Government of Canada’s 1996 Policy Framework for Radioactive Waste Management establishes that waste owners are responsible for the management of their radioactive wastes. This includes the planning, funding, and implementation of long-term waste management initiatives. Within this context, the Government has established three separate programs aimed at addressing the long-term management of radioactive waste for which it has accepted responsibility. The largest of these programs is the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program (NLLP). The objective of the NLLP is to address radioactive waste and decommissioning liabilities resulting from 60 years of nuclear research and development at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) sites in Canada. In 2005, the Government increased the value of this liability in its Public Accounts based on a new, 70-year long-term strategy and, in 2006, it implemented a $520 million 5-year work plan to initiate the strategy. The cost of implementing the full strategy is estimated at about $7 billion (current-day dollars). Canada’s Historic Waste Program is a second program that is designed to address low-level radioactive wastes across Canada that are not managed in an appropriate manner for the long-term and for which the current owner can not reasonably be held responsible. These wastes mainly emanate from the refining and use of radium in the 1930s and the very early days of the nuclear industry in Canada when radioactive ores were mined and transported long distances for processing. While the Historic Waste Program has been in place since 1982, the Government of Canada launched the Port Hope Area Initiative in 2001 to deal with the bulk of the waste. Finally, the Government of Canada has entered into two agreements with Canadian provincial governments on roles and responsibilities relating to the decommissioning of uranium mine and mill tailings sites. These agreements, one with the Province of Ontario and one with the Province of Saskatchewan, establish the responsibilities of each level of government to address circumstances where further decommissioning work is required and the producer can no longer be held responsible. The paper will provide an overview of these environmental remediation programs for radioactive waste and will describe recent progress and future challenges.

Integrating Natural and Social Sciences to Inspire Public Confidence in Radioactive Waste Policy Case Study: Committee on Radioactive Waste Management

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Usher
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management ◽  
Waste Policy ◽  
The Uk

Implementing effective long-term radioactive waste management policy is challenging, and both UK and international experience is littered with policy and programme failures. Policy must not only be underpinned by sound science and technical rationale, it must also inspire the confidence of the public and other stakeholders. However, in today’s modern society, communities will not simply accept the word of scientists for setting policy based purely on technical grounds. This is particularly so in areas where there are significant social and ethical issues, such as radioactive waste disposal. To develop and implement effective policy, governments, waste owners and implementing bodies must develop processes which effectively integrate both complex technical and scientific issues, with equally challenging social and ethical concerns. These integrating processes must marry often intricate technical issues with broad public and stakeholder engagement programmes, in programmes which can expect the highest levels of public scrutiny, and must invariably be delivered within challenging time and budget constraints. This paper considers a model for how such integrating processes can be delivered. The paper reviews, as a case study, how such challenges were overcome by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), which, in July 2006, made recommendations to the UK government for the establishment of a long-term radioactive waste policy. Its recommendations were underpinned by sound science, but also engendered public confidence through undertaking the largest and most significant deliberative public and stakeholder engagement programme on a complex policy issue in the UK. Effective decision-making was enabled through the integration of both proven and bespoke methodologies, including Multi-criteria Decision Analysis and Holistic assessments, coupled with an overarching deliberative approach. How this was managed and delivered to programme demonstrates how important effective integration of different issues, interests and world views can be achieved, and the paper looks forward to how the continued integration of both natural and social sciences is essential if public confidence is to be maintained through implementation stages. This paper will be particularly relevant to governments, waste owners and implementing bodies who are responsible for developing and implementing policy.

Current status of radioactive waste management in Afghanistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 323 (2) ◽  
pp. 715-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad R. Tanha ◽  
Marlia M. Hanafiah ◽  
Fazal R. Khalid ◽  
Mohammad A. Storai ◽  
Christoph Hoeschen
Keyword(s):  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Radioactive Waste Management
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