Site begins to take the waste

Augean lab staff monitor composition of waste Waste from nuclear sites is now beginning to arrive at a specialised landfill site in Northamptonshire that has recently been authorised to handle lightly radioactive material.

The East Northants Resource Management Facility (ENRMF) is the first in the UK to seek and receive the additional permissions required to dispose of lower-activity low level waste(LLW) in bulk quantities at its existing site.

Operated by Augean plc, the site is already permitted to deal with a wide range of hazardous wastes from sludges and incinerator ash to contaminated soil and asbestos.

For the nuclear industry, the authorisation was an important step towards broadening the disposal options for lower-activity LLW.

Vital alternative route
Paul Blackler, Chief Executive of Augean, which operates the Northamptonshire facility, regards LLW as a natural progression for a business already highly experienced in dealing with wastes classified as 'hazardous'. "There are many waste streams coming here from all over the country, and most of them are more difficult to deal with than LLW. We have the resources, including the skills, the experience and the capacity – and are confident that this site provides a much-needed alternative route for lower-activity LLW, as well as naturally occurring radioactive material. In addition, the costs will be significantly lower than disposal to the LLWR." The East Northants site is around12 miles from Peterborough, near the village of Kings Cliffe, close to major arterial routes and within reasonable transportation distance of some of the NDA's southern sites. With 12 sites, UK-based Augean plc treats and processes around half a million tonnes of hazardous waste each year, with approximately 120,000 tonnes sent to the East Northants site. Specially equipped labs staffed by highly qualified chemists and technicians check samples from each consignment, with further treatment available on site if required. Adaptations were required to take LLW but Paul points out that these were minimal compared to existing requirements for analysing, monitoring and treating the current waste streams that it has been handling for many years. Deliveries sent to the Augean landfill are monitored and checked on arrival before being consigned to one of the bespoke impermeable cells. The LLW remains packed in the soft-sided delivery liners. Regular data reporting to the Environment Agency is just one of a range of legislative safeguards, while the EA can conduct unannounced spot checks at any time.

Vital alternative route

Paul Blackler, Chief Executive of Augean, which operates the Northamptonshire facility, regards LLW as a natural progression for a business already highly experienced in dealing with wastes classified as 'hazardous'.

"There are many waste streams coming here from all over the country, and most of them are more difficult to deal with than LLW. We have the resources, including the skills, the experience and the capacity – and are confident that this site provides a much-needed alternative route for lower-activity LLW, as well as naturally occurring radioactive material. In addition, the costs will be significantly lower than disposal to the LLWR."

The East Northants site is around12 miles from Peterborough, near the village of Kings Cliffe, close to major arterial routes and within reasonable transportation distance of some of the NDA's southern sites.

With 12 sites, UK-based Augean plc treats and processes around half a million tonnes of hazardous waste each year, with approximately 120,000 tonnes sent to the East Northants site. Specially equipped labs staffed by highly qualified chemists and technicians check samples from each consignment, with further treatment available on site if required.

Adaptations were required to take LLW but Paul points out that these were minimal compared to existing requirements for analysing, monitoring and treating the current waste streams that it has been handling for many years.

Deliveries sent to the Augean landfill are monitored and checked on arrival before being consigned to one of the bespoke impermeable cells. The LLW remains packed in the soft-sided delivery liners.

Regular data reporting to the Environment Agency is just one of a range of legislative safeguards, while the EA can conduct unannounced spot checks at any time.

Historically, the industry's LLW was sent almost exclusively to the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) near Drigg in Cumbria, the only such facility in the UK and where space is limited. However, a new strategy published in 2010 established a more flexible approach.

With millions more tonnes of lower-activity LLW – mostly building rubble-set to arise as old nuclear power stations are cleaned up and gradually demolished, the need for additional facilities and disposal routes is pressing.

Jo Van Straaten, the NDA's National Programme Delivery Manager, said:

"Availability of appropriate management routes for this kind of waste is extremely important to delivering the UK strategy. Using these other means we are preserving scarce disposal capacity at the LLW Repository, which is required to meet the long-term programme needs for environmental restoration and responsible decommissioning of the UK's civil nuclear legacy.

"This change of approach to dealing with lower-activity LLW, which is at the lowest end of radioactivity levels, complements other areas of effective waste management in the national programme and it can be safely disposed of alongside other types of waste from industrial processes."

Jo added that Government policy of 2007 had endorsed the use of alternative routes, including appropriate landfill sites, as environmentally sound and cost-effective, and these options are reflected in the overall Strategy.

The challenge now, said Jo, was to see utilisation of the small number of other sites currently available or awaiting permitting decisions to support the UK's needs for radioactive waste management.

The Strategy
The publication by the NDA in 2010 of the UK Strategy for the Management of Solid Low Level Waste highlights theoptions available for managing this material. One of these is the use of UK landfill sites for disposing of the substantial quantities of LLW that cannot be managed further up the waste hierarchy (ie. are unsuitable for recycling, combustion or compaction etc) anddo not need the levels of containment provided by the LLW Repository to be managed safely. Waste producers are responsible for waste prevention, minimisation and characterising the material at source. They are also responsible for ensuring the most appropriate and environmentally acceptable option fordisposal, once all other steps in the'waste hierarchy' have been considered. The LLWR and NDA have recently set up a new working group that includes representatives from regional waste planning authorities and will look at the use of alternative disposal routes, including landfill and possible on-site options.

The Strategy

The publication by the NDA in 2010 of the UK Strategy for the Management of Solid Low Level Waste highlights theoptions available for managing this material.

One of these is the use of UK landfill sites for disposing of the substantial quantities of LLW that cannot be managed further up the waste hierarchy (ie. are unsuitable for recycling, combustion or compaction etc) anddo not need the levels of containment provided by the LLW Repository to be managed safely.

Waste producers are responsible for waste prevention, minimisation and characterising the material at source. They are also responsible for ensuring the most appropriate and environmentally acceptable option fordisposal, once all other steps in the'waste hierarchy' have been considered.

The LLWR and NDA have recently set up a new working group that includes representatives from regional waste planning authorities and will look at the use of alternative disposal routes, including landfill and possible on-site options.

First batch arrives

Soft-sided waste bags are loaded onto a transport vehicle A consignment of Harwell rubble was the first waste from the nuclear industry to arrive at ENRMF.

Arising from the decommissioning of a drainage system at the former research site, the waste comprised approximately 20 cubic metres of rubble containing very small amounts of radioactivity and was transported by road in sealed packages.

Paul Atyeo, senior project manager at Research Sites Restoration Ltd (RSRL) which operates the site, said:

"Up until now, there have been no readily available solutions for wastes containing small amounts of low level radioactivity, arising from the nuclear decommissioning process, as well as from other sources,such as science and research facilities, hospitals and manufacturing.

"There were simply very few sites thatcould accept them. Consequently, these wastes have accumulated where they originated, or were sent to the LLWR, though this was designed for much higher levels of radioactivity and has limited capacity.

"ENRMF provides a highly engineered solution to the problem of what to dowith this kind of waste, the inevitableside-effect of clean-up work. RSRL intends to dispose of further wastes of this type through this route steadily overthe next few years."

RSRL used services provided by the Low Level Waste Repository Ltd (LLWR) to access the disposal route.

An Environment Agency inspector checks the consignment RSRL carried out a feasibility study of all options for treatment, recycling and reuse of the waste material, as well asassessing possible landfill-based routes, and carried out a public consultation programme before reaching a decision on how to proceed.

Augean, in consultation with RSRL and others, subsequently prepared detailed designs, undertook environmental impact assessments and engaged with stakeholders, including the local community who were invited to a public exhibition, site visits and open days at the Northants facility.

The process to obtain all the necessary consents took four years, culminating in a public inquiry and a decision by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to uphold the planning proposal. A number of legal challenges followed this decision but the courts judged that the approval had been robust

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