A joint advice note has been published for the nuclear sector titled Regulatory expectations for successful land quality management at nuclear licensed sites. It was issued in October 2024 by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The note sets out their shared, high-level regulatory expectations for the prevention and management of radioactive and non-radioactive contamination of the ground and water on nuclear licensed sites.
Updating a note from 2014, it reflects how some land quality issues on nuclear sites can now also be covered through the Site Wide Environmental Safety Cases (SWESCs) and Waste Management Plans (WMPs) created under the environment agencies Management of radioactive waste from decommissioning of nuclear sites: Guidance on Requirements for Release from Radioactive Substances Regulation (the GRR).
The advice note highlights five key principles that the regulators expect operators / licensees to consider when preventing and managing land and water contamination, namely:
- establish strategies and plans for land quality management
- prevent new contamination of land or the water environment
- understand the land quality and contamination characteristics of the site
- manage land quality to mitigate safety and environmental risks and
- work with stakeholders and other interested parties