NIREX
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nirex is a United Kingdom government body set up in 1982 under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government to examine safe, environmental and economic aspects of deep geological disposal of intermediate-level and low-level radioactive waste in underground storage facilities. Originally known as the Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Executive, it was replaced by the limited company Nirex in 1985. The ownership of Nirex was transferred from the UK Government departments Defra and DTI to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in 2007.
The organisation gained widespread notoriety during the 1980s as the focus for widespread public opposition to the burying of nuclear waste in the UK.
Nirex is based at Harwell in Oxfordshire and has several roles:
- to advise organisations and companies that produce radioactive waste on how they should package radioactive waste;
- to set standards for radioactive waste packaging. It monitors the processes of organisations and companies to check, for example, that they have procedures for keeping adequate records;
- to produce on behalf of the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs an updated public record of the quantities and types of radioactive waste that exist in the UK;
- to continue to develop understanding of the options for dealing with radioactive waste. These can be scientific, technological and environmental. However, they also include developing an understanding of the requirements for public acceptability.
Nirex is also involved in keeping the UK abreast of international expertise in research and development into the disposal of radioactive waste.
