The work of a radioactive waste management watchdog The work of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee

Abstract

This paper traces the origins and development of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), an independent committee of experts charged with giving advice to Government on issues relating to the management of civil radioactive waste. It focuses on the constitution of the committee and its working methods and the way in which these are arranged to reflect RWMAC's independence. In describing the committee's work, particular attention is paid to the deep disposal strategy for intermediate level waste. There is discussion of RWMAC's advice on the need for openness and transparency and the options available to the Government following rejection of the Nirex planning application for a Rock Characterisation Facility (RCF) at Longlands Farm, near Sellafield. However, as consideration of the committee's 1998 work programme shows, its remit extends much wider than issues associated with the disposal of radioactive waste.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

‘The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee's first annual report’, HMSO, London, UK, May 1980.

‘Nuclear power and the environment: Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, sixth report’ (Cmnd 6618), HMSO, London, UK, September 1976.

‘Nuclear power and the environment, the Government's response to the sixth report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’ (Cmnd 6820), HMSO, London, UK, May 1977.

‘Potential health effects and possible sources of radioactive particles found in the vicinity of the Dounreay nuclear establishment’, Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment and RWMAC, HMSO, London, UK, May 1995.

‘The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee's report on the import and export of radioactive waste’, DETR, London, UK, September 1997.

Published as Annex 4 to RWMAC's Sixteenth Annual Report, Department of the Environment, London, UK, July 1996.

Rwmac: ‘Review of problems encountered by small users of radioactive substances: for better or for worse?’ HMSO, London, UK, February 1996.

Rwmac: ‘Response on Nirex's proposals for publication and peer review’, Department of the Environment, London, UK, January 1997.

Rwmac: ‘Report on categorisation of solid radioactive wastes’, DETR, London, UK, September 1997.

10.

Rwmac: ‘Review of the Ministry of Defence's radioactive waste management and practices’, DETR, London, UK, January 1998.

11.

Rwmac: ‘Initial recommendations on the long term management of intermediate level radioactive waste following rejection of the UK Nirex rock characterisation facility planning application: rethinking disposal’, DETR, London, UK, January 1998.

12.

‘Site selection for radioactive waste disposal facilities and the protection of human health’, report of astudy group drawn from members of RWMAC and the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations, London, UK, March 1995.

13.

‘Disposal of radioactive wastes in deep repositories’, report of a Royal Society study group, The Royal Society, London, UK, November 1994.

14.

The RCF was an underground laboratory proposed by Nirex to be constructed at Sellafield which, if established, would have been used for in situ studies of the conditions at the site of a possible repository.

15.

‘The response of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee to the Select Committee on Science and Technology's inquiry into the management of nuclear waste, written evidence to the committee received up to 30 January 1998’, HL Paper 89, HMSO, London, UK, April 1998, 248–263.