Meeting documents

To consider a report by the Service Director – Economy (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Service Director – Economy on planning application 6/2016/0587 for the proposed continued use of land and buildings for radioactive waste management and operational development, to include the modification to the B4 complex and associated infrastructure for waste storage/treatment, rain and foul water drainage and extension to building B48, at Tradebe Inutec B4 Complex at Winfrith Newburgh.

With the aid of a visual presentation, and taking into account the provisions of the Update Sheet circulated to members prior to the meeting and appended to these minutes, officers described the proposals and planning issues in detail, what these entailed and what they were designed to achieve. The application sought permission for the continued use of a radioactive waste management facility located within an existing licensed nuclear site that was currently being decommissioned and the means for the disposal of waste material.

The Committee was informed that the Tradebe Inutec waste management facility had been operational for some 30 years but, in 2013, the applicant was notified by the County Council that the existing planning consents for the site and licensed nuclear facility did not permit the commercial management of radioactive waste, from off-site sources, at the scale that was being undertaken. Clarification was provided by the County Council to the applicant why this application was necessary and, subsequently, the applicant agreed to submit a planning application to regularise the continued use of the waste management facility. Also included in that application was a new operational development that would enable the waste management facility to manage radioactive waste independently of the wider licensed nuclear site.

It was explained to members that the need for new operational development was linked to the continued use of the facility and was driven primarily by the decommissioning of the Magnox site at Winfrith. The application fully accorded with national policy for radioactive waste management and with national and local planning policy and there had been no objections received to it. Furthermore, members were informed that the County Councillor for Egdon Heath, Peter Wharf, had indicated that he was fully supportive of the proposals.

Plans and photographs were used to show the characteristics of the site, its location and to describe the means by the facility would operate. The site’s land form, the buildings and facilities proposed to be used for the operations and their context within the surrounding landscape were shown, with views taken from within and around the site. The activities and operations proposed to be undertaken were described in detail by officers, how the treatment of the waste material would be managed and the drainage systems associated with this. How the waste material would be transported, by vehicle, off site was described and the current arrangements this would replace. Access and security arrangements were also drawn to the Committee’s attention. Officers described what relationship the activities which were to take place on site had with the current operations; the site’s setting within the landscape; and the relationship of the application with other facilities in the larger context of the site. Officers confirmed that there was to be no change to existing activities on the site, only to the way in which they were managed.

Critically, the way in which the waste was to be discharged and managed was at the core of the application, with the pipelines for active foul waste water which ran underground and took waste off site now being decommissioned so that an alternative, and replacement, means of treating the waste on site and transporting it away, by vehicle, was now necessary and had to be found. 

Members  asked questions and received answers from officers on the handling of radioactive waste water and traffic generation.

The Committee recognised the complexities associated with this application, which was borne out by the protracted negotiations between the applicant and officers in coming to an acceptable agreement on how this should be best managed. It was also appreciated what efforts had been made in identifying a sustainable and manageable solution for dealing with this issue.

From the report by the Service Director and the presentation by officers, the Committee were satisfied that the application would achieve what it was designed to do, in dealing with the radioactive waste management process in a controlled, secure and practical way.  Accordingly, on being put to the vote, the Committee agreed

Resolved

That planning permission be granted subject to the conditions set out in paragraph 8.2 of the Service Director’s report.

Reason for Decision

To ensure that the operations were managed in a safe, responsible and practical way and by the appropriate means necessary.