Strategy for the management of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) waste in the United Kingdom
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
After consideration of consultation responses the Government has published its UK NORM Waste Management Strategy that aims to:
- ensure that secure, sustainable and resilient NORM waste management options are available. This is important to protect people and the environment from any hazards associated with the management of NORM waste, and also minimise costs and delays to decommissioning of North Sea oil infrastructure and facilitating new unconventional oil and gas developments.
- enable the supply chain to invest in capacity to meet increased future arisings, and ensure continuity of management options for radioactive waste from both the nuclear and non-nuclear industries.
The strategy sets out how this will be achieved through clarity of regulatory regimes and improved forecasting and availability of data on NORM waste arisings.
Original consultation
Consultation description
This consultation paper has been published jointly by the UK Government, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment.
This consultation paper sets out our joint proposals for a strategy for Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) waste in the UK.
Our joint policy is to facilitate the sustainable and efficient management of Low Level Radioactive Waste in line with the waste hierarchy. This requires a policy framework which enables and encourages waste producers to avoid the production of unnecessary waste, and to manage arisings in the most environmentally appropriate way.
A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has been undertaken by the Scottish Government’s Environmental Assessment Team in accordance with the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004. The SEA reflects the strategic ambitions of the Strategy, and has been undertaken in parallel with the Consultation Paper to both inform its development and assess how its adoption may impact on the environment. The findings are presented in the SEA Environmental Report which is included in a package of documents which support the consultation paper.
Scottish Government has led on the development of this consultation document and will coordinate the consultation process. The consultation package is available from their website.
Updates to this page
Last updated 16 October 2014 + show all updates
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Published government response.
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NORM Strategy published.
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First published.