Provision of Support in the Assessment of Radiation Fields at the Perimeters of Selected Nuclear Licenced sites

There is an obligation on ONR to provide regulatory assurance on the management by licensee’s of radiation fields at their site fences. This requires ONR to establish independent confirmation of these radiation fields.

The public policy imperatives that underpin this need are as follows: i) It is ONR’s responsibility to maintain regulatory oversight of the direct radiations emanating from operations at nuclear licenced sites. ONR must be able to demonstrate that it meets this obligation. ii) The UK needs to be able to demonstrate compliance with Basic Safety Standards Directive 96/29 EURATOM and implementing UK law as regards public exposures. iii) These dose rate data form an important part of the annual report on “Radioactivity In Food and the Environment” (RIFE), which is produced by the Environment Agency, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. 1.2 In 2000 the NII first started to collect dose rate data from licensees, except for research reactors and certain defence establishments, and since then, a small number of licensed sites (typically four) have been selected each year and the dose rates measured at selected places along the perimeter.

The data are then used to estimate the exposure of the public reference groups to direct radiation. Further information is available in the Appendix to this document.