The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016

SECTION 1 General

Interpretation

1.  In this Part—

“Ba-137m eluting source” means a source which consists of Cs-137 in a sealed container which is designed and constructed to allow the elution of Ba-137m, and which is radioactive material or radioactive waste solely because of that Cs-137;

“Class A gaseous tritium light device” means a gaseous tritium light device where the activity of the device does not exceed 2 x 10¹⁰ Bq of tritium;

“Class B gaseous tritium light device” means a gaseous tritium light device which is installed or intended to be installed on premises and where the activity—

(a)

in each sealed container in the device does not exceed 8 x 10¹⁰ Bq of tritium, and

(b)

of the device does not exceed 1 x 10¹² Bq of tritium;

“Class C gaseous tritium light device” means a gaseous tritium light device installed or intended to be installed—

(a)

in a vessel or aircraft, or

(b)

in a vehicle or other equipment used or intended to be used by the armed forces of the Crown;

“disposal permit” means—

(a)

an environmental permit to carry on the radioactive substances activity described in paragraph 11(2)(b) of Part 2 of this Schedule, or

(b)

an authorisation under the 1993 Act to dispose of radioactive waste held in respect of premises situated in Northern Ireland or Scotland;

“electrodeposited source” means an article where radionuclides are electrodeposited onto a metal substrate and which is radioactive material or radioactive waste solely because it contains Ni-63 or Fe-55;

“gaseous tritium light device” means a sealed source in a device which is an illuminant, instrument, sign or indicator which—

(a)

incorporates tritium in one or more sealed containers constructed to prevent dispersion of that tritium in normal use, and

(b)

is radioactive material solely because it contains that tritium;

“luminised article” means an article which is made wholly or partly from a luminescent substance in the form of a film or a paint and which—

(a)

is radioactive material or radioactive waste solely because it contains Pm-147 or H-3, and

(b)

is not a sealed source;

“management”, in respect of waste, means—

(a)

the preparation by checking, cleaning or repairing that waste for its re-use without further processing,

(b)

the recovery of that waste,

(c)

the disposal of that waste, or

(d)

the application of any treatment process to that waste which is preparatory to the recovery or disposal of it,

and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;

“relevant river” means a river or a part of a river which—

(a)

is not a part of the sea, and

(b)

at the place and time of any disposal into it of aqueous radioactive waste from a sewage disposal works or directly from premises, has a flow-rate which is not less than 1m³s^-1;

“relevant sewer” means—

(a)

a public sewer, or

(b)

a disposal main which leads to a sewage disposal works that—

(i)

has the capacity to handle a minimum of 100m³ of effluent per day, and

(ii)

discharges treated effluent only to the sea or to a relevant river,

and “public sewer”, “disposal main”, “sewage disposal works” and “effluent” have the same meaning as in the Water Industry Act 1991(1);

“relevant standard conditions” has the meaning given in paragraph 10;

“sea” includes any area submerged at mean high water springs and also includes, so far as the tide flows at mean high water springs, an estuary or arm of the sea and the waters of any channel, creek, bay or river;

“sealed source” means a radioactive source containing radioactive material where the structure is designed to prevent, under normal use, any dispersion of radioactive substances, excluding such a source where it is an electrodeposited source or a tritium foil source;

“stored in transit” means the storage in the course of transit of radioactive material or radioactive waste but does not include any storage of such material or waste where it is removed from its container;

“Table 4”, “Table 5”, “Table 6”, “Table 7” or “Table 8” means the table with that number in this Part;

“a tritium foil source” means an article which—

(a)

has a mechanically tough surface into which tritium is incorporated, and

(b)

is radioactive material or radioactive waste solely because of that tritium;

“uranium or thorium compound” means a substance or article which is radioactive material or radioactive waste solely because it is or contains metallic uranium or thorium or prepared compounds of uranium or thorium, and in respect of which metal or compound the proportion of—

(a)

U-235 in the uranium it contains is no more than 0.72% by mass, and

(b)

any isotope of thorium it contains is present in the isotopic proportions found in nature;

“waste permitted person” means, in relation to the radioactive waste where the term appears, a person who holds—

(a)

an environmental permit to carry on the radioactive substances activity described in paragraph 11(2)(b) or (c) of Part 2 of this Schedule, or

(b)

in respect of premises in Scotland or Northern Ireland, an authorisation under section 13 or 14 of the 1993 Act;

“week” means any period of 7 consecutive days;

“year” means a calendar year.

Interpretation: NORM

2.—(1) In this Part, “ NORM waste” means a substance or article which is solid radioactive waste under—

(a) paragraph 4 of Part 2 of this Schedule, or

(b) except where sub-paragraph (2) applies, paragraph 5 of that Part where the waste arises from the remediation of land.

(2) Land is not contaminated under sub-paragraph (1)(b) where the land is on a site in respect of which a nuclear site licence is or has been in force and the contamination occurred—

(a) when that licence was in force, or

(b) before that licence was granted, when the site was used for the purpose of installing or operating an installation described in subsection (1) of section 1 of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965(2) or in regulations made under that subsection.

(3) In these Regulations, “NORM waste concentration” means, in respect of radionuclides contained in NORM waste, the sum of the concentrations of the single radionuclide with the highest concentration in each of the natural decay chains beginning with—

(a) U-238,

(b) U-235, and

(c) Th-232.

(1)

1991 c. 56; the definition of “public sewer” was amended by section 99(6) of the Water Act 2003 (c. 37).

(2)

1965 c. 57; section 1 was substituted by paragraph 17 of Part 2 of Schedule 12 to the Energy Act 2013 (c. 32).