In 2009, UK government published a revised UK Discharge Strategy, which updates government policy and describes how the UK will continue to implement the agreements reached at the 1998 OSPAR Convention, and subsequent OSPAR meetings on radioactive substances, particularly the radioactive substances strategy. This builds on the initial UK Strategy, pub­lished in 2002, and expands its scope to include aerial, as well as liquid discharges, from decommissioning as well as operational activities, and from the non-nuclear as well as the nuclear industry sectors. The objectives of the strategy are:

• to implement the UK’s obligations, rigorously and transparently, in respect of the OSPAR Radioactive Substances Strategy (RSS) interme­diate objective for 2020; and

• to provide a clear statement of government policy and a strategic frame­work for discharge reductions, sector by sector, to inform decision making by industry and regulators.

The expected outcomes by 2020 are:

• progressive and substantial reductions in radioactive discharges (to the extent described in the strategy);

• progressive reductions in concentrations of radionuclides in the marine environment resulting from radioactive discharges, such that by 2020 they add close to zero to historical levels; and

• progressive reductions in human exposures to ionising radiation result­ing from radioactive discharges, as a result of planned reductions in discharges.