Welcome to the new Radioactive Waste and Materials Inventory website!
The UK Radioactive Waste and Materials Inventory (‘the Inventory’) provides detailed information on radioactive wastes and materials in the UK through a suite of reports which are updated every 3 years. The reports, plus much more info on the waste lifecycle and management of waste can be found on this website. The website has been completely refreshed for 2024, with the aim of improving the user experience through a simplified interface which makes the website easier to use. This blog functionality also allows experts from around the industry the chance to share developments relating to the Inventory. I’ve added some brief background on the inventory data below, but please do explore the website to find more detail on all aspects of the UK Inventory.
What is the Inventory and why do we have it?
The Inventory is essentially a huge dataset with information about all the radioactive waste and materials that we have in the UK, and that we estimate will arise in future. In addition to nuclear power stations and decommissioning sites, many important medical, industrial, research and defence activities also produce radioactive waste. We need the Inventory to understand how much waste there is and where it is located. We also need to understand what the waste is made from, including its physical, chemical and radiological characteristics. We can then use this information to plan safe and efficient ways to manage the waste and materials.
Why does the data change? Where can I find out more?
Data about radioactive waste and materials can change due to a range of technical, commercial or policy reasons, such as:
- Our understanding of the waste and materials streams has improved
- Strategies for managing radioactive waste and materials have been updated
- Ongoing operational activities have affected the amount of waste and materials in stock
- Assumptions used to estimate future radioactive waste and materials arisings have been updated
So, how accurate is the data?
The inventory is based on the best available information about waste and materials at a specific point in time (the ‘stock date’). Even so, there are some uncertainties in the data, which we need to carefully consider. The uncertainties may relate to the nature of the waste, how much will arise or when it will arise. Some of the biggest areas of uncertainty are associated with:
- Legacy waste – these are wastes that were produced a long time ago when detailed records were not routinely kept as they are now
- Long-term forecasts – uncertainty typically increases the further that waste arisings are projected into the future
- Future decommissioning and site clean-up – this is particularly the case for waste at the lower end of the activity range (LLW and VLLW), where strategies, plans and waste assessment techniques are continually improving and providing better estimates of future volumes
- Where there are uncertainties, sites and producers use the best available information to make reasonable estimates. They may use data from waste samples, surveys and historical evidence to support their assumptions. The final figures are reviewed internally by the site. They are checked again by the contractor who compiles all UK Inventory data on our behalf. This helps to ensure that the assumptions used are as realistic as possible.