THE Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston has been served an improvement notice for its failure to demonstrate its long-term strategy for managing radioactive waste.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation announced that it had served an improvement notice on AWE Aldermaston for “failing to demonstrate that its long-term strategy for managing higher active radioactive waste reduces the future risk to the public and employees so far as reasonably practicable.”

The government watchdog says it considers AWE to have contravened the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to demonstrate that its management of radioactive waste reduced the risk to the public and its employees.

In a notice on their website, ONR said: “This enforcement action relates to the long-term management of higher active radioactive waste. ONR is satisfied that the current conditions under which the waste is stored are acceptable and do not give rise to significant risk to the public or the workforce.

“However, ONR considers that AWE has contravened the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to demonstrate that its long-term strategy for managing higher active radioactive waste reduces the future risk to the public and employees so far as reasonably practicable throughout the anticipated storage life of the waste at Aldermaston.”

The improvement notice now requires AWE to recommend options to the ONR on how it will manage the radioactive waste in a way that reduces this risk by September 30, 2016.

Haydn Clulow, site director for AWE, said that they are “considering the appropriate treatment and storage options for all forms of higher activity waste that are stored at Aldermaston.” adding: “AWE welcomes the ONR’s acknowledgement that our arrangements for managing the storage of Higher Activity Waste at our Aldermaston site does not give rise to significant risk to the health and safety of the public or our workforce in the short or medium term.”