You must check whether you need an environmental permit, registration or authorisation to keep or use radioactive material or accumulate or dispose of radioactive waste.
Who is your environmental regulator?
In
England and
Wales, your environmental regulator is the Environment Agency.
Environment Agency: Contact details
In Northern Ireland your environmental regulator is the Chief Radiochemical Inspector (Industrial Pollution and Radiochemical Inspectorate) of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
Industrial Pollution & Radiochemical Inspectorate: Contact details
In Scotland, your environmental regulator is SEPA.
SEPA: Radioactivity contact details
England and Wales
Do you need an environmental permit?
If you held a certificate of registration or authorisation for radioactive materials or waste on 5 April 2010, it automatically became an environmental permit on 6 April 2010. To find out more, see the Environment Agency’s website.
Environment Agency: Questions and answers on the Environmental Permitting Regulations (Adobe PDF - 1.5MB)
Environment Agency: Guidance for users of radioactive substances
You must have an environmental permit if you carry out a radioactive substances activity. This includes:
- keeping or using radioactive material at your premises
- disposing of radioactive waste on or from your premises
- accumulating radioactive waste on your premises
- receiving radioactive waste for disposal
- keeping or using mobile radioactive apparatus for certain purposes.
Defra: Draft environmental permitting guidance on radioactive substances regulation (Adobe PDF - 200KB)
You do not need an environmental permit if an exemption order applies to your radioactive material or radioactive waste. Exemption orders are made under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 and remain in force. The exemption orders are being reviewed and are expected to be brought into environmental permitting in 2011.
How do you apply for an environmental permit?
You must complete an application form and pay an application fee to the Environment Agency. You can get application forms for your radioactive substances activities from the Environment Agency’s website.
Environment Agency: Radioactive substances application forms (England and Wales)
If you carry out a radioactive substances activity and another activity that needs an environmental permit (another regulated facility), such as a water discharge activity, you will be issued with one environmental permit for your radioactive substances activity and a separate permit for your other regulated facility.
The Environment Agency is working on being able to issue a single permit for sites that have both radioactive substances activities and other classes of regulated facilities. Environmental permits for sealed sources will not be combined with any other type of permit for security reasons.
Northern Ireland and Scotland
Do you need a certificate of registration for radioactive materials?
If you keep or use radioactive materials, you need a certificate of registration.
You must register:
- open or unsealed sources on your premises
- closed or sealed sources on your premises
- mobile apparatus incorporating a sealed radioactive source
- mobile apparatus (open sources) for use in environmental studies
- radioactive packages stored in transit.
You must complete the correct application form for the type of radioactive material you keep or use.
Types of radioactive material
If you need a certificate of registration to keep and or use open radioactive sources, you will normally also need a certificate of authorisation to accumulate and dispose of the wastes that will be generated.
Do you need a certificate of authorisation for disposing of or storing radioactive waste?
If you dispose of or accumulate radioactive waste, you need a certificate of authorisation.
How do you apply for a certificate of authorisation?
You can obtain application forms for certificates of registration and authorisation from your environmental regulator’s website or local office.
It can take your environmental regulator up to four months to process the application forms, so make sure you submit your application forms well before you plan to start work. There is normally a fee to be paid at the time you apply. Application fees are published on your environmental regulator website.
NIEA: Radioactivity application forms (Northern Ireland)
SEPA: Radioactivity application forms (Scotland)
What you must do when you hold a permit, certificate of registration or authorisation
- Comply with the conditions in your environmental permit, certificate of registration or authorisation.
- Pay any relevant subsistence fees for the environmental permit, certificate of registration or authorisation.
- Display a copy of your environmental permit on the premises, unless it relates to a radioactive sealed source.
- Display a copy of your certificate of registration or authorisation on the premises.
Exemption orders
You may not need an environmental permit, certificate of registration or authorisation if an exemption order applies to your business. Exemption orders specify types of premises, materials or apparatus which do not need to be further permitted, registered or authorised.
Exemptions apply to:
- environmental permits and registrations for some low activity radioactive sources
- environmental permits and authorisations for accumulating and disposing of some radioactive wastes.
To establish whether you are exempt, you must consider whether:
- any of the exemption orders apply to your radioactive sources or waste
- you can comply with the conditions of the relevant exemption orders.
Some of the application forms for permits, registrations and authorisations include a list of exemption orders.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Environment Agency provide further guidance on exemption orders.
DECC: Exemption orders
Environment Agency: Exemption orders guidance (Adobe PDF - 319KB)
If you are unsure if you are covered by an exemption order, or need further information, you should contact your environmental regulator. You can decide if you wish to use an exemption order, and if you do, it will be your responsibility to comply with any conditions.
Enforcement or prohibition notices
If you breach, or are likely to breach, the conditions of your registration or authorisation your environmental regulator can issue you with an enforcement notice.
Your environmental regulator may issue you with a suspension notice (England and Wales) or prohibition notice (Northern Ireland and Scotland) if there is a risk of serious pollution or harm to human health (even if you are complying with the conditions of your registration or authorisation).
In this guideline:
Radioactive substances: environmental permits, registrations, authorisations and exemptions
Storing and disposing of radioactive waste
Types of radioactive material
High-activity sealed sources (HASS)
Radioactive materials and wastes further information
Radioactive materials and wastes legislation
