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"NUCLEAR CLEAN UP - NEW SOLUTIONS ARE NEEDED TO MANAGE RADIOACTIVE WASTE" SAYS A NEW REPORT FROM INDEPENDENT EXPERTS

Press Release - 24 March 2003

The volume of radioactive waste that will need to be managed in the UK as a result of nuclear decommissioning and clean-up is the subject of two reports published today. An accurate measure of all types of waste that will have to be dealt with is a basic requirement at a time when tackling the UK's historic nuclear legacy is high on the Government's agenda.

A central finding of the two reports is that reliance on the existing Drigg near-surface disposal site alone as a long-term management solution for these "low activity wastes" is misplaced. The site is filling up and the report indicates that additional capacity will be required. Volumes of low activity waste are not accurately reported, partly because of uncertainty about how they are treated in the UK Radioactive Waste Inventory and partly in the hope that disposal routes other than Drigg will ultimately be identified for the more lightly contaminated of these wastes.

The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), an independent body of experts, found that although other routes exist in principle (including incineration, use of landfill and other forms of burial) they are not widely available in practice and are likely to diminish further as a result of environmental legislation.

RWMAC recommends that the Government should consider whether a Radioactive Materials Inventory is needed - in order to take fuller account of all existing and potential nuclear liabilities.

The number of nuclear plants being decommissioned, currently and in the near future, will result in very large amounts of waste. RWMAC warns that unless sensible and robust solutions can be found "huge amounts of lightly contaminated soil and rubble cleared from nuclear sites might have to be transported across the UK, only to have to be buried elsewhere, all at great public cost. This would merely be moving the problem, not solving it."

Professor Charles Curtis, the RWMAC Chairman, said:

"These studies raise issues of real concern. As the decommissioning and clean up of closed nuclear plants continues, the need to assess the extent of liabilities and plan the management of wastes becomes increasingly important. Our report concludes that improvements are needed in estimating and recording volumes of low activity wastes.

We also believe that a Radioactive Materials Inventory would help considerably in future planning as it could then include some more active materials, such as uranium, plutonium and spent nuclear fuel that are currently not included as wastes."

Notes for editors

As part of its work programme for 2001-02, RWMAC's sponsoring Ministers requested the Committee to examine the management of "low activity" solid radioactive wastes in the UK and to advise on the scope and compilation of the UK Radioactive Waste Inventory.

The first report addresses a range of wastes which are highly diverse in nature and in the amount of radioactivity they contain. They include waste which is disposed of to the Drigg facility in Cumbria, the UK's only disposal route for low level radioactive waste (which is at the upper end of the low activity range) and less active wastes from the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the remediation of radioactively contaminated ground. The other report examines the UK Radioactive Waste Inventory, a Government-sponsored database of current and forecasted wastes, including what it covers and how it is compiled. RWMAC found that the current Inventory gives little indication of the actual or potential inventory of low activity wastes.

RWMAC is an independent expert body established to advise the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations for Scotland and Wales on policy and practices for the management of civil radioactive waste.

Copies of these RWMAC reports are available from: DEFRA Publications, Admail 6000, London SW1A 2XX (e-mail defra@iforcegroup.com), each priced at £10.

Press enquiries should be made to:

RWMAC secretariat, 4E/4, Ashdown House,
123 Victoria Street, London SW1 6DE
(telephone - Monday to Friday - 0207 944 6260/6254).