Most radioactive waste produced is low level waste (LLW), which contains relatively small amounts of radioactivity.
LLW includes; contaminated equipment and protective clothing from the nuclear industry, research and medicine; soil and rubble from the decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear sites; and residues from industrial processing of some minerals.
Since 1959, most LLW has been disposed of at the Low Level Waste Repository near Drigg in Cumbria. This is the national repository for LLW in the UK. Within the next few years we will be reviewing whether we carry on permitting LLW disposal at the Repository.
Additional near surface disposal facilities will be needed for lower activity LLW because the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's (NDA) decommissioning programme of nuclear sites will create large quantities of LLW for disposal in such facilities, far more than can be disposed of at the LLW Repository.
Further information
We’ve published guidance on how we regulate the disposal of low level radioactive waste.
