§ Mr. BurgonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when the draft statutory Guidance to the Environment Agency on the regulation of radioactive discharges into the environment from nuclear licensed sites, referred to in the UK Strategy for Radioactive Discharges consultation document, will be issued for public consultation; and what its contents are. [140495]
§ Mr. MeacherThe Government have today published a consultation paper setting out our proposals for Statutory Guidance to the Environment Agency. It brings together and publicises, for the first time, the factors that we require the Environment Agency to consider when setting discharge levels.
The draft guidance reinforces the Government's commitment progressively to cut discharges and discharge limits. It will help deliver the commitment the UK has given to its OSPAR partners to ensure that by 2020, discharges are reduced to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historic levels, resulting from such discharges, are close to zero.
The guidance will help ensure that discharge authorisations are consistent with the UK Strategy for Radioactive Discharges 2001–20, which is now being finalised following public consultation earlier this year.
Central to the guidance is the need to ensure the protection of the public, not only within the UK but beyond our borders. For example, the guidance proposes that, in general, discharge levels are set so that Community Food Intervention Levels are not exceeded, even though there is no requirement to do so under law.
Equally, none of the measures taken to protect the environment should compromise the safety of workers, and this is also covered in the guidance, in terms of both routine exposures and risks of accidents.
Keeping radioactive waste to a minimum must be the key to reducing discharges. While the industry works to achieve this, we are asking the Agency to evaluate alternative ways of making allowable discharges so that the best practicable environmental option can be chosen.
Each case will be considered on its merits but the presumption now will be that discharges should be minimised by requiring radioactivity to be trapped and immobilised for subsequent storage or treatment, rather than discharged into the environment.
The guidance will encourage operators to keep their discharges to a minimum by setting strict limits on how much they can discharge. These limits will be subject to regular review. We also propose that there should be a "cap" on discharges from new plant.
The guidance recognises that it is not necessary to apply a specific limit to every radionuclide which is discharged, but effective control over all discharges is essential. The Agency is therefore given guidance on which radionuclides, as a minimum, it should control.
New technology will play a vital role in reducing discharges. With this in mind the draft guidance requires the Agency to set timescales for research and development to be carried out into new technological developments.
290WCopies of the consultation have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.