AWE to be investigated after nuclear waste deadline expires

In 2007, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) issued AWE with a license requiring it to reduce the 1,000 drums of “intermediate level waste” it had on site.
The licence has now expired without its requirements being met and the ONR confirmed on Friday (21) that it would investigate why AWE did not meet the requirements of the licence and would consider enforcement action in accordance with the Health and Safety Executive’s policy.
However, the regulator said that the level of waste did not constitute “significant risk to the public”.
AWE said that it informed the ONR in August 2011 that it would not be able to meet the terms of the licence by the required date of February 2014
It said the project, to reduce the volume of the waste and encapsulate it at the Aldermaston site, was stopped after the company decided it was not the best long-term solution.
A spokesman for the ONR said: “ONR inspectors inspect AWE’s arrangements for the production and storage of all forms of radioactive waste at their facilities, and are content that the current conditions under which the intermediate level waste is stored are acceptable in the short term and do not give rise to significant risk to the public or the workforce.
"Since August 2011 ONR has pressed AWE to develop an appropriate solution which met the main objective of the licence – to demonstrate adequate progress in placing the hazardous material into a passively safe form.
"AWE has in response improved its arrangements for storing untreated intermediate level waste, and has made progress in developing its long term waste treatment and storage strategy."
AWE said that it was continuously working to further improve its environmental performance as this was core to delivering a safe and secure site.
It said: “AWE remains committed to managing our waste in a safe and compliant manner.
“The ONR has recognised that this issue relates to the medium and long term management of intermediate level waste and that the current conditions in which the waste is stored are acceptable.
"It does not give rise to significant risk to the public or the AWE workforce.”
Earlier this year, AWE was one of five sites shortlisted by the MOD to store waste from nuclear-powered submarines as part of the defence's Submarine Dismantling Project.