In the UK, control over radioactive wastes is exer­cised through the Radioactive Substances Act 1960, (‘the Act’) which came into force in 1963 following a government white paper policy document ‘The Control of Radioactive Wastes’ (Cmnd 884). This policy was reviewed following consideration of the 1976 Sixth Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental ~ Pollution [1]. Further reviews of policy and objectives were given in the 1977 White Paper ‘Nuclear Power and the Environment’ [2] and an Expert Group re­viewed Cmnd 884 in 1979 [3]. Policy objectives were repeated in a 1982 White Paper ‘Radioactive Waste Management’ [4]. The Government has established a Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee whose fifth Annual Report was made in 1984 [5]. The specific items of reference of the Committee are: ‘To advise the Secretaries of State for the Environ­ment, Scotland and Wales on major issues relating to the development and implementation of an overall policy for the management of civil radioactive waste, including the waste management implications of nu­clear policy, of the design of nuclear systems and of research and development, and the environmental as­pects of the handling and treatment of wastes.’

Under an independent Chairman, the Committee currently consists of eight independent members, four members from the nuclear and electricity generating industries and three from the trade unions with mem­bers in those industries. Whilst these reviews are re­flected in the interpretation of the Radioactive Sub­stances Act 1960, the Act itself remains unchanged.