Radioactivity meaning

Scope of this Practice Note This Practice Note sets out the main types of radioactive waste and examines disposal against the EU-defined waste hierarchy. It places contemporary management of radioactive waste within the historical development of the nuclear industry from a planning standpoint. Principal policy documents are reviewed to chart the evolution of government thinking over time. Geological disposal of Higher Activity Waste (HAW) under the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008) is compared with alternative disposal routes under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) and the Planning (Wales) Act 2015. Consultation duties, application processes and required consents are identified for both regimes. Notable planning appeals and judicial review cases are highlighted before looking at international approaches to radioactive waste. What is radioactive waste? In the UK, radioactive waste arises—and will arise—from past, current and future programmes for electricity generation from nuclear fission, the reprocessing of nuclear fuel, the development of nuclear weapons, the nuclear submarine fleet and wastes from radioactive materials used for civil...

Extension of EPA Part IIA to radioactive contamination At first, land affected by radioactivity was excluded from the ambit of Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 1990). Section 78YC of EPA 1990 makes clear that the Pt IIA regime does not apply to harm, or water pollution, attributable to radioactivity. However, that section grants the Secretary of State authority to make regulations and guidance concerning radioactive substances. These powers have been used to create, in effect, a parallel Part IIA scheme for radioactive contaminated land: Radioactive Contaminated Land (Enabling Powers) (England) Regulations 2005, SI 2005/3467 Radioactive Contaminated Land (Modification of Enactments) (England) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/1379 Radioactive Contaminated Land (Modification of Enactments) (Wales) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/2988 The government has published legally binding statutory guidance explaining how local authorities and the Environment Agency should implement the radioactive contaminated land regime (the RCL Statutory Guidance) in England, with equivalent guidance issued for Wales. The RCL Statutory Guidance is distinct...

Contaminated land 'Land contamination' broadly refers to any land that might be affected by pollutants. In contrast, 'contaminated land' is a precise legal term set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Part IIA (EPA 1990). See Practice Note: Contaminated land—definition of contaminated land. Where a local authority determines land is contaminated, it must issue a remediation notice to any person who caused, or knowingly allowed, the contaminant(s) to be in, on or under the site. If no such party can be traced, responsibility may pass to the blameless owner or occupier. The contaminated land regime is stringent and retrospective. It applies across the whole UK. It was established to: address the legacy of contaminated sites across the UK that would not be cleaned up without regulatory action foster market-based solutions by incentivising businesses to carry out voluntary remediation Liability under Part IIA ought to be applied only when no preferable mechanism exists to manage the contamination—i.e. as a measure of last...