THE Environment Agency is consulting the public over proposed changes at a company which disposes radioactive waste from Winfrith Technology Centre.

Specialist company NNC Ltd is seeking permission from the agency to vary its authorisation to dispose of radioactive waste.

NNC runs a quality-checking laboratory at Winfrith carrying out independent monitoring of solid low-level radioactive waste on behalf of the Environment Agency.

This work has been going on for several years and the authorisation is being reviewed now because the laboratory is being relocated to a new building at Winfrith.

The NNC operation generates small amounts of radioactive waste in solid, liquid and gaseous forms.

The solid waste will be transferred to Drigg in Cumbria.

Liquid waste will be discharged through the existing drainage system at the site and gases will go through a filtration system before being released into the atmosphere.

The radioactive waste from the NNC facility comes from its laboratory, where chemical analysis is carried out on a range of samples of low level radioactive waste from nuclear and non-nuclear sites around the UK. This procedure is carried out at many other laboratories in the UK.

The level of radioactivity in the samples that are processed - and in the waste that is generated - is very low. Less than 0.1 per cent of the radioactivity is removed from the bulk waste for chemical analysis.

The bulk waste is returned in its original containers to the site of origin once the sampling and analysis is complete. It is not stored at Winfrith for extended periods.

Andrew Stone of the Environment Agency said: "Copies of the draft authorisation, the application and supporting information are now available on the public register and we will take into account all relevant responses before we make our final decision on the application."

Details of the application are available atwww.environment-agency.gov.uk and on the public register at Purbeck District Council. Phone 0845 933 3111 for more information on viewing it.

Comments should be made in writing before June 10 to NNC BX0237 Consultation, Nuclear Regulation Group, Environment Agency, Howbery Park, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8BD.

First published: May 24