THE Atomic Weapons Establishment has been rapped by a Government regulatory agency for the second time this year for failings in radioactive waste management arrangements.

The Environment Agency has raised a 'non-compliance intervention' notice against AWE after a site inspection in July revealed that insufficient numbers of competent personnel were in place to allow the company to comply with environmental permits.

Earlier this year, an investigation into arrangements for processing radioactive waste held at AWE was launched by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, another regulatory agency.

The inspection, which was undertaken jointly by the Environment Agency, the Office for Nuclear Regulation, and the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator, found that AWE had been without a number of key waste management personnel for several months, including some Facility Waste Officers, Radioactive Waste Specialists and the Head of Environment.

AWE has said that a number of “unforeseen circumstances at very short notice” led to the posts becoming vacant and that security requirements had led to recruitment delays in filling them. In the interim period, existing staff were covering the roles.

In most other respects, the regulators found AWE's radioactive waste management arrangements to be “robust”, and a number of areas of good practice were identified.

The Environment Agency has formally notified AWE that it has breached a condition of its environmental permit, and that this is an offence under environmental law.

The Agency has provided the company with advice on action required to meet the requirements of the environmental baseline.

Earlier this year, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) announced that it is considering enforcement action against AWE for failing to comply with instructions for managing a growing backlog of radioactive waste.

AWE was issued with a legally binding Licence Instrument in March 2007, ordering the company to reduce the volume and encapsulate 1,000 drums of intermediate level radioactive waste so that they could be stored safely in a passive form over the long term.

The Licence Instrument expired at the end of February 2014 without its requirements being met.

ONR is currently investigating AWE’s failure to comply with the Licence Instrument and has said it will consider enforcement action in accordance with its enforcement policy when investigations are complete.

In a statement, AWE said: “The Environment Agency found AWE’s radioactive waste management arrangements to be robust and identified a number of areas of good practice.

“AWE constantly reviews its staffing arrangements, but a number of unforeseen circumstances at very short notice led to the vacancies.

“At the time of the EA inspection, candidates were identified to fill the posts but the security requirements have led to recruitment delays. Our recruitment activity is, however, progressing well with some of the posts now filled.”