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RWMAC's Advice to Government on:
Issues to be Included in Regulatory Guidance on Radioactive Waste Discharge Authorisations

Press Release:
28 August 1998

The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) today publishes the advice it has given to the Government on the issues that should be included in guidance for the regulators on the processes by which they may allow radioactive waste to be discharged to the environment.

For a number of years, the RWMAC has called for a published document that explains the nature of these regulatory processes. Under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993, the Environment Agencies* may grant authorisations for the discharge of liquid and airborne radioactive wastes subject to legally enforceable limits and conditions. In the RWMAC's view, the issues raised by these authorisations are such that the Agencies must be given clear guidance on the principles used to determine the limits and conditions. The guidance required is referred to by the RWMAC as the "Principles Document".

Announcing the publication of his Committee's advice, the RWMAC Chairman, Sir Gordon Beveridge, said today

"The RWMAC believes that the Principles Document is needed in order to ensure that the system of regulatory control over radioactive waste discharges is open and transparent to those to whom it is applied and the public whom it is designed to protect. The document should rest on a clear declaration of Government policy and standards that adequately protect the public and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation. This is vital if there is to be public confidence in the way discharges are regulated."

He added that the advice to the Government emphasises that the Principles Document

"must be founded on the best scientific evidence available and relate levels of risk from radioactive waste discharges to those generally accepted as tolerable in other areas of day to day life. In the Committee's view, the Environment Agencies need to apply regulation in a more consistent and transparent way than they have done in the past."

Sir Gordon said that it was important that the Principles Document provided a clear, consistent and scientifically justified statement of the arrangements, so that understanding and implementation of the process could be improved for the benefit of all those who had an interest in it. The RWMAC's advice was intended to assist in this process.

* In the RWMAC's report, these are the Environment Agency for England and Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Notes to Editors

The independent Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee was set up in response to a recommendation of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's Sixth Report on Nuclear Power and the Environment. Its terms of reference are

"To advise the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales on the technical and environmental implications of major issues concerning the development and implementation of an overall policy for all aspects of the management of civil radioactive waste, including research and development; and on any such matters referred to it by the Secretaries of State."

Sir Gordon Beveridge is the former President and Vice Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast.

Currently, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions is taking forward work on the Principles Document which will, in due course, be the subject of public consultation. As pad of its 1998 work programme, the Committee offered to provide early advice to Ministers on the subject areas which it would be necessary for the Principles Document to cover. Following the agreement of Ministers to this suggestion, the Committee's advice was submitted on 29 June 1998. The advice given to Ministers is incorporated unchanged into the published report.

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