Head
Office Press Office - 9-Apr-2008 - Environment
Agency publishes latest report on the environmental
performance of the nuclear sector in England
and Wales
The 2006 annual report
on the environmental performance of the
nuclear sector in England and Wales has
been published by the Environment Agency.
This report describes
the environmental performance of the nuclear
sector measured against the objectives and
performance indicators set out in the Nuclear
Sector Plan.
"The Nuclear Sector
Plan was developed by the Environment Agency
following discussions with the nuclear industry,"
explained Environment Agency Director of
Environment Protection Tricia Henton.
"It sets out eight
main environmental objectives and indicators
of performance that we and the industry
have agreed. These cover statutory responsibilities,
but go further by including voluntary activities
the industry has agreed to undertake. The
plan also addresses areas where we have
agreed to improve our work as an environmental
regulator. We are pleased that the industry
is supporting the sector plan and has agreed
to use the plan to monitor and report on
the impact of its activities.
"Overall, the performance
of the sector compared its environmental
objectives was very good during 2006, with
improvements being made in a number of areas.
Of course, we will need to monitor performance
over a number of years to identify trends."
The report shows:
Natural resource usage
reduced - sites used less water and energy
in 2005. The nuclear sector used a total
of 15.7 million cubic metres of water (4%
less than in 2005). It also used 27,080
Tj (7.5TWh) of energy (1% less than in 2005).
More waste produced
but being managed - Progress with packaging
intermediate level radioactive waste (ILW)
varied from site to site, with Sellafield,
Trawsfynydd and Windscale all making good
progress. Nevertheless, packaging radioactive
wastes into a form fit for long-term storage
and disposal is a significant future challenge
for the industry. The sector produced 257,000
tonnes of non-radioactive waste in 2006,
more than in 2005, although a significant
proportion of this came from decommissioning
work. More than 75% of this waste was classified
as inert. Integrated waste strategies were
in place at 73% of nuclear sites.
Progress towards meeting
targets for discharges to air and water
- Reducing liquid radioactive discharges
to meet the UK radioactive discharge strategy
targets is one of the main environmental
challenges facing the nuclear sector. Good
progress is being made. Sellafield met a
challenging target of reducing technetium-99
discharges from 190 terabequerels (TBq)
in 1995 to less than 10TBq a year by the
end of 2006 as a result of changes required
by the Environment Agency. The general trend
in recent years has been for discharges
to reduce. Some discharges increased in
2006 following the return from outage of
plant at Sellafield, and due to increased
output at some Magnox power stations.
Contribution to reducing
greenhouse gases - The nuclear sector releases
a relatively small amount of greenhouse
gases into the environment. In 2006, the
sector generated 18% of the UK’s electricity
and released greenhouse gases equivalent
to 0.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Working to restore sites
and develop biodiversity action plans -
In 2006 89% of nuclear sites had a contaminated
land management plan in place to characterise
contamination on sites and, if needed, to
implement remediation work. By the end of
2006 70% of sites had implemented biodiversity
action plans.
Links between the industry,
regulators and stakeholders working well
- Good progress is being made to improve
involvement and understanding between nuclear
sites, the Environment Agency and other
interested organisations. All nuclear sites
hold some form of local regular stakeholder
liaison meeting. In 2006 83% of operators
published environmental reports.
Increasing awareness
of product stewardship - There are some
examples of good practice in relation to
product stewardship within the nuclear industry.
For example, several sites already assess
the environmental performance of their suppliers.
Improvements in regulatory
and environmental management systems - Modern
multi-media authorisations for disposing
of radioactive waste were in place at 70%
of nuclear sites by the end of 2006. There
were no serious pollution incidents or serious
breaches of permits in the sector during
2006.
Although overall performance
against the eight environmental objectives
was good in 2006, there are areas where
work is needed to further improve performance.
Areas for improvement include:-
• Making better use
of resources at some sites, particularly
those sites that can update infrastructure
and management systems.
• Packaging and conditioning
intermediate level radioactive waste in
a form suitable for disposal.
• Sharing best practice
on recycling conventional waste within the
nuclear sector and learning from other sectors.
• Continuing to make
good progress in reducing discharges by
applying ‘best practicable means’, and making
progress towards meeting all of the UK strategy
targets for radioactive discharges.
• Making progress in
delivering improvements in integrated waste
management as set out in ‘integrated waste
strategies’ drawn up for individual sites,
and developing a national waste strategy
that builds on this work.
• Operators and the
Environment Agency to track and share numbers
of lower categories of incidents and breaches
to provide early warning of trends.
To see the full 2006
annual report on the environment performance
of the nuclear sector in England and Wales
please visit http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/444304/945835/2011995/2012097/?version=1&lang=_e
