Publication Abstract

Changes in impacts of liquid radioactive waste discharges from Sellafield to the Irish Sea during the 1990s as a result of new plant and authorisation revision

Changes in impacts of liquid radioactive waste discharges from Sellafield to the Irish Sea during the 1990s as a result of new plant and authorisation revision

B.D. Smith, G.J. Hunt and W.C. Camplin

British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) and its predecessors have been reprocessing nuclear fuel for nearly five decades at Sellafield in west Cumbria, UK. Operations generate low-level liquid radioactive wastes which are discharged into the Irish Sea, such discharges requiring authorisation under UK law. For the period considered by this paper (1990 to 1998), two authorisations have been in force. The first was a variation in January 1990 to the authorisation granted in 1986 under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960, and the second authorisation came into effect in January 1994 under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. Both were issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP). Under the terms of the Environment Act 1995, authorisations in England are now granted by the Environment Agency (EA) which subsumed HMIP, and MAFF is a Statutory Consultee. Table 1 shows the annual limits in these authorisations in simplified form.

Reference:

B.D. Smith*, G.J. Hunt* and W.C. Camplin* (2000) Changes in impacts of liquid radioactive waste discharges from Sellafield to the Irish Sea during the 1990s as a result of new plant and authorisation revision. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association, Hiroshima, Japan, 15-19 May 2000

B.D. Smith*, G.J. Hunt* and W.C. Camplin*

Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association, Hiroshima, Japan, 15-19 May 2000