Very pleased to be supporting the International Summer School on Decommissioning and Waste Management organised by the EC Joint Research Council and held at their Ispra site in Italy. The Summer School is aimed at masters degree level students and provides them with the opportunity to explore and discuss some of the challenges facing the decommissioning and waste management community.
I was invited as one of the expert speakers within the session on "what to do with waste in the long term?"
The BEIS Select Committee continues its inquiry into the draft guidance on the determination of radioactive waste disposal planning applications and today takes oral evidence from three witness panels:
Panel I - Philip Matthews, Executive Director, Nuclear Legacy Advisory Forum; Ruth Bradshaw, Policy and Research Manager, Campaign for National Parks; Dr Pauleen Lane, Group Manager National Infrastructure, Planning Inspectorate.
Panel II - Bruce McKirdy, Managing Director, Radioactive Waste Management; Stephen Tromans QC, Member, Committee on Radioactive Waste Management; Professor Andrew Blowers, Co-Chair, NGO Forum and Chair, Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group.
Panel III - Richard Harrington MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Business and Industry, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; Stephen Speed, Director, Nuclear, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; Umran Nazir, Deputy Director, Decommissioning, Radioactive Materials and Geological Disposal Programme, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The record of the hearing is available here
The IAEA has published a revision to Specific Safety Requirements No. SSR-6 Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material. These are international model regulations that will eventually be adopted into UK legislation covering all aspects of radiological safety in transport, whether it be by road, rail, sea, inland waterway or air. Current legislation is based on the previous version issued in 2012.
There are a number of detailed changes in the revised issue but two in particular will be significant for the future management of radioactive wastes.
New material category - SCO-III
The transport regulations specify different packaging criteria depending upon the form of the material proposed for transport. One such category is Surface Contaminated Objects (SCO) - a solid object that is not itself radioactive but which has radioactive material distributed on its surface. The SCO provisions have been extended to include a new category SCO-III. In addition to meeting the general requirements for SCO designation, SCO-III objects are defined in para 413(c) as a large solid object that is too large to be transported in the type of package described in SSR-6. The section describes detailed criteria to be met regarding sealing of openings, inside being as dry as practicable and limits on contamination levels on external and inaccessible areas. This categorisation might be applicable to transport of large objects such as power station heat-exchangers, or other reactor components which arise as waste during decommissioning operations and which need to be transported e.g. to a processing plant or disposal facility.
Shipment after a period of storage
It is not uncommon for radioactive wastes to be conditioned and packaged into containers that provide both transport and disposal functions. The half-height freight container used for packaging of low level waste for disposal to the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) is an example. A similar approach has also been used for some intermediate level wastes but without a disposal route, such wastes have to be stored pending the provision of a GDF. The fact that transport packages may be manufactured and then stored prior to transport is now explicitly recognised within SSR-6 with the provision of additional requirements detailed in para 503(e):
For packages intended to be used for shipment after storage, it shall be ensured that all packaging components and radioactive contents have been maintained during storage in a manner such that all the requirements specified in the relevant provisions of these Regulations and in the applicable certificates of approval have been fulfilled.
The BEIS Select Committee has today launched an inquiry to examine the draft guidance on the determination of radioactive waste disposal planning applications i.e. the draft National Policy Statement for geological disposal infrastructure that was issued for consultation on 25 January 2018.
The Committee has invited written submissions - deadline 15 June 2018.
Barlow Geosafety submitted a response to the BEIS consultation on Working with Communities today.
See the response here
The government is seeking views on whether the National Policy Statement (NPS) provides an adequate framework to make decisions on development consent applications for geological disposal infrastructure in England. Take part here.
