Environment Agency Working Group (EARWG) Support

Objective:

To provide support to the Environment Agency Working Group (EARWG) in satisfying their ‘Improvement and Additional Information Requirement’ requested by the Environment Agency.

Added value to client:

The support will assist clients in achieving compliance with their RSA Authorisations.

Activity:

RMC provides secretarial support to the Group and is involved in developing two databases to satisfy two of the clients’ ‘Improvement and Additional Information Requirements’.

Development of a Best Practice in Waste Minimisation Database.

RMC conducted a review of national and international best practice waste minimisation for solid, liquid and gaseous waste. This was undertaken by conducting a desktop literature search. A panel of experienced RMC staff provided specialist input.

Information on each technology was incorporated into a datasheet, which was reviewed by a panel of independent reviewers.

A web-hosted database was created. This database allows waste minimisation data to be viewed, entered and modified via the Internet. Datasheets were stored in the database using a hierarchical structure.

Development of Waste Assay Attributes Tool.

RMC is in the proceess of developing a waste assay database to facilitate the storage and retrieval of data on radioactive waste assay. RMC conducted a comprehensive review of the waste assay techniques used by UK nuclear operators.

The database has been populated with a number of radioactive waste assay technologies categorised according to user, radionuclides, medium and analytical technique.