Environment Agency

The Environment Agency was set up in 1996 covering England and Wales but in 2013 became an England-only non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Nuclear responsibilities

The Environment Agency is 'responsible for regulating the nuclear industry on environmental matters such as disposals and discharges of radioactive waste from the site, discharges of cooling water and operation of standby generators'.

Our position on nuclear power is that we:

• recognise nuclear power's role in providing low-carbon electricity generation as part of the national energy mix
• insist that nuclear installations achieve high standards of safety, security, environmental protection and radioactive waste management
• believe that Government and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority should continue to demonstrate credible commitment to making progress with geological disposal of radioactive waste.

Waste

Since 6 April 2010 has regulated the disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear sites under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (EPR). We also regulate certain aspects of the keeping and use of radioactive sources on nuclear sites. These Regulations replace the Radioactive Substances Act 1963 (RSA93). For convenience we call this Radioactive Substances Regulation (RSR).

Contact

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