Radioactive Waste (Disposal) (Hansard, 26 February 1976)

§ Mr. Benn

Disposal is a term used to mean dispersal into an environmental medium or emplacement in a facility either engineered or natural with the intention of taking no further action, apart from any necessary monitoring. The disposal of all radioactive waste is controlled by the Radioactive Substances Act 1960, which is administered jointly by the Secretary of State for the Environment—or for Scotland or for Wales, as appropriate—and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Prior authorisation by the Departments concerned is a statutory requirement before any radioactive waste may be consigned to a sea disposal operation.

There are the following broad categories of radioactive waste which have to be dealt with: low-activity effluent which is discharged locally to the environment within authorised limits, low-activity solid contaminated waste which may be buried on land or dumped in ocean deeps as appropriate, and higher-activity fission product and associated waste which must be stored to isolate it from the environment.

The United Kingdom has disposed of low-activity radioactive waste in the sea since 1949. In 1967, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD agreed to arrange sea disposal operations to establish on an international basis the means by which solid radioactive waste could be safely disposed of at sea without damage to the marine environment, and also to evolve co-operatively the necessary operational techniques. The United Kingdom has participated since 1967 in 331W annual international operations organised by the NEA, except in 1968 and 1970 when there was no NEA operation and the United Kingdom undertook its own sea disposal operation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is an intergovernmental organisation under the aegis of the United Nations, is also concerned with radioactive waste management questions, including sea disposal. In 1958 a panel of experts from member States, convened under the chairmanship of Mr. H. Brynielsson of Sweden, drew up guidelines, published in 1961, for disposal of solid radioactive waste at sea. More recently the IAEA in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Waste and Other Matter, 1972, normally referred to as the London Convention, has recommended limits to the quantities and categories of radioactive waste which may be dumped in the sea. Sea disposal operations in which the United Kingdom has participated have been well within the limits recommended by the IAEA.

In the light of the advice of the National Radiological Protection Board, supported by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate of the Health and Safety Executive, it is the judgment of the authorising Departments that dumping in the deep ocean is the most suitable method of disposal of solid low activity radioactive waste arising in the United Kingdom.

We have a considerable quantity of tow-activity plutonium-contaminated solid radioactive waste, which the Government is advised is suitable for disposal in the deep ocean. Most of it is stored at Windscale and Drigg, in Cumbria. The desirable rate for the disposal of this waste is well within the permitted safety limits recommended by the IAEA to protect the marine environment, but is appreciably greater than the current rate of disposal through the annual sea dump arranged by the NEA. The London Convention permits individual countries to dispose of radioactive waste at sea within the limits recommended by the IAEA. Moreover, the contracting parties to the Convention, of which the United Kingdom is one, have pledged themselves to promote within the specialised agencies measures to protect the marine environment 332W against pollution by radioactive materials. For the sea dumping of these increased quantities of wastes in accordance with IAEA recommendations, we propose to discuss with the member States of the NEA the ways in which that organisation's experience in sea disposal could best be utilised to assist member States wishing to dump radioactive waste at sea within the framework of the London Convention.