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Security

How we ensure sites that are licenced by us to store and/or use radioactive sources have adequate safety measures in place.

Approximately 3,000 sites in England and Wales are licensed by us to keep and use radioactive sources. In addition to our usual regulatory role of protecting people and the environment, it’s our job to make sure those sites have adequate security measures in place to prevent the sources from falling into the wrong hands.

We regulate the security of sealed radioactive sources on sites in England and Wales. We do this under the High-Activity Sealed Radioactive Sources and Orphan Sources (HASS) Regulations (Word, 622KB), part of the Radioactive Substances Act.

What we do

We:

  • carry out inspections and manage a national inventory of high-activity sealed sources. This ensures we know exactly who in the UK owns each individual source at any time;
  • work with the police to make sure that the site operator has adequate security measures in place to protect sealed radioactive sources;
  • ensure that the operator has the right finances in place to ensure they can dispose of any high-activity sealed source at the end of its life, even if the operator goes out of business.

Our work:

  • makes it more difficult for terrorists to obtain radioactive substances;
  • ensures our customers understand the threat of malicious uses of radioactive sources;
  • delivers a very high level of compliance on security issues;
  • protects information from people who may try to use it for malicious purposes.

Risk-based approach

We use a risk-based approach that means that higher levels of security are in place for higher-risk sources, and less for lower-risk ones.

Disposal programme

We ran the UK’s Surplus Source Disposal Programme which collected and safely disposed of radioactive substances that were no longer required.

Surplus sources were either recycled, disposed of at the national low-level waste repository near Drigg in Cumbria, or sent to  one of two nuclear sites (Sellafield or Harwell) for secure long-term storage.

Through the programme we collected and disposed of more than 11,000 surplus sources at a cost of £7.14 million (nearly £2 million less than originally forecast). The project was short-listed for a procurement award by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Further information