Collection

Geological disposal: scrutiny of Nuclear Waste Services' work

Reports about the regulatory scrutiny of Nuclear Waste Services' work on the geological disposal of radioactive waste.

Nuclear Waste Services is responsible for developing a geological disposal facility (GDF).

The Environment Agency will jointly regulate a GDF with the Office for Nuclear Regulation in England. Before formal regulation starts, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and ONR are jointly scrutinising Nuclear Waste Services’ work to implement geological disposal. The work carried out under their joint scrutiny programme is summarised in a series of annual reports.

The regulators are also providing advice to Nuclear Waste Services to make sure that it:

  • develops the organisational capabilities needed to hold a nuclear licence and environmental permits
  • takes full account of permitting and licensing requirements when applying to develop and operate a GDF
  • provides appropriate advice to waste producers about how they should package radioactive waste for future geological disposal

Regulatory scrutiny reports provide details of this work.

In addition, the regulators carry out technical reviews of research and development carried out by Nuclear Waste Services on topics related to their regulatory remits of:

  • environmental protection
  • safety and security
  • radioactive materials transport and safeguards

Nuclear Waste Services launched on 31 January 2022. ‘Nuclear Waste Services’ is a trading name of LLW Repository Ltd and Radioactive Waste Management Ltd.

Contact us

For more information about scrutiny of Nuclear Waste Services’ work on geological disposal, email the Environment Agency at [email protected].

Annual reports

Reports from the pre-application advice and scrutiny programme

Updates to this page

Published 1 December 2013
Last updated 10 May 2022 + show all updates
  1. Updated the page to reflect that the organisation responsible for geological disposal facilities has changed its name from Radioactive Waste Management to Nuclear Waste Services.

  2. We have updated our contact email address to: [email protected].

  3. Added link under reports to Joint regulators' assessment of the 2016 generic Disposal System Safety Case.

  4. Removed Issues Resolution Process group. Regulatory issues or regulatory observations are now listed in the annual reports.

  5. New report published: Scrutiny of Radioactive Waste Management, annual report 2016 to 2017.

  6. New page added to the collection - The early stages of implementing geological disposal: regulatory use of geoscientific information.

  7. New report: Scrutiny of Radioactive Waste Management, annual report 2015 to 2016.

  8. New document added to the 'Annual reports' section: Regulatory scrutiny of Radioactive Waste Management Limited’s work on geological disposal of radioactive waste: biennial report: April 2013 to March 2015.

  9. First published.