The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Objective

• To ensure that wastes are managed in a manner that protects people and the environment, now and in the future, and in ways that comply with Government policies and provide value for money.

Nuclear site operations and successful site restoration depend on the availability of suitable waste management routes and facilities. Effective management of both radioactive and non-radioactive waste is essential to the delivery of our mission and is a significant part of our programme.

Waste management is not a straightforward process of retrieval and disposal. It requires a series of steps:

• pursuing opportunities for waste minimisation
• re-use and recycling
• waste treatment
• packaging
• storage
• transport and then final disposal where required.  

Since publishing our first Strategy our remit on waste has been extended substantially. Government has made us responsible for implementing geological disposal for Higher Activity Waste (HAW), except in Scotland where the policy is for long-term management in near surface facilities. In 2010 we delivered the Low Level Radioactive Waste Strategy for the whole of the UK's nuclear industry, as required by the Policy for the Long Term Management of Solid Low Level Radioactive Waste in the United Kingdom, published jointly by the UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Governments in March 2007.

We take a UK-wide view of waste management opportunities, risks and practical developments and have published an overview of Integrated Waste Management. We need to ensure that appropriate waste plans are being implemented across our estate. To help with this process we require our sites to deliver an Integrated Waste Strategy setting out their approaches to managing the full range of waste they generate. We also track international developments as a benchmark and collaborate with other countries on waste management opportunities to share good practice. 

Summary of the Waste Heirarchy

 Integrated Waste Management - Strategy Development Programme Draft for Comment December 2011 (3Mb)

Comments are welcome by 24 February 2012

For further information see:

UK Radioactive Waste Inventory 2010 website
For background information on quantities and the nature of radioactive waste

 Integrated Waste Management Overview (1Mb)

 UK Radioactive Higher Activity Waste Storage Review (500Kb)

 UK Strategy for the Management of Solid Low Level Radioactive Waste from the Nuclear Industry (2Mb)

Our Strategy

Strategic decisions about waste management are informed by the following key principles:

• risk reduction is a priority
• centralised and multi-site approaches should be considered where it may be advantageous
• waste should be minimised
• the waste hierarchy should be used as a framework for waste management decision making and enables an effective balance of priorities including value for money, affordability, technical maturity and the protection of health, safety, security and the environment.  

We will continue to promote the importance of waste characterisation, improved waste information (see Information and Knowledge Management Strategy) and waste segregation to facilitate waste management planning and application of the Waste Hierarchy. 

Our Higher Activity Waste Strategy is to implement the UK Government's policy of deep geological disposal and the Scottish Government policy for long term management in near surface facilities. For Low Level Waste, disposal will be in fit for purpose facilities that reflect the nature of the wastes to be managed.  

Within this overall framework our priority is to achieve risk reduction by dealing with waste in ageing storage facilities (for example legacy facilities at Sellafield) and placing it into safer modern storage conditions.  

Diverse radioactive waste management and disposal solutions will be pursued where these offer benefits over previous arrangements. We will also investigate opportunities to share waste management infrastructure across the estate and with other waste producers where we can see benefit. New waste management approaches will often require different transport arrangements and will be a matter of great interest to planning authorities and people living close to the sites involved. We will engage with interested parties from an early stage, irrespective of whether such developments represent new investments proposed by us or by other organisations on our behalf. We will work with key organisations, for example local authorities, to build on the feedback we have received on how this engagement should happen and develop a framework for engagement that provides for useful discussion when considering new waste management initiatives.  

We believe there are opportunities for a more flexible approach in the management of waste that is close to category boundaries. For example, decay storage of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) may make the use of LLW treatment and disposal routes feasible. We will consider the role that these opportunities can provide.  

We will encourage innovation and open market solutions, and sustain R&D matched to the challenges of waste management both by direct investment and indirectly through the programmes of our Site Licence Companies.  

The NDA intends to take a multi-site and UK-wide view, to include its own sites and the operations of other waste producers, including EDF Energy and MoD. We recognise that in future the radioactive waste management landscape will change, particularly as a result of the UK's new reactor programme. With UK Government agreement we will supply advice and information to utilities involved in the programme. This will ensure both an integrated approach to radioactive waste management and that our facilities, some of which support both the civil and defence nuclear industries, can plan effectively for the future.

Underpinning Strategies

• Higher Activity Waste: To treat and package HAW and place it in safe, secure and suitable storage facilities until it can be disposed of, or be held in long-term storage in the case of a proportion of HAW in
• Low Activity Waste: For Solid Low Level Waste - To provide capability and capacity for managing solid low level radioactive waste to support our decommissioning and operations and make facilities available to other low level waste producers.
• For Liquid and Gaseous Discharges -To reduce the environmental impact of radioactive liquid and gaseous discharges in accordance with the UK Strategy for Radioactive Discharges.
• Non-Radioactive and Hazardous Waste: To reduce waste generation and optimise management practices for non-radioactive and hazardous wastes at NDA sites.