• CULTURE & AIMS

    A defining feature of the new directorate is that we won’t be carrying out the important work into radioactive waste management alone. Throughout our activities, we will be liaising closely with the Government, with communities, with local government, with independent regulators, with the supply chain, and with a reconstituted Committee on Radioactive Waste Management. That means an open, collaborative approach will be central to our culture and our success.

    In particular, we are keen to embed the lessons learnt from past experiences at the very outset, and ensure that our working culture is right for our broad remit. A key recommendation of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management is that we develop open and transparent relationships with stakeholders, and that we appreciate the wider context of the waste issue – understanding it as a social and ethical question as much as a technical and scientific one.

    The new directorate is also an organisation that will need to be flexible enough to change greatly over time. Although we will initially be based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, we will relocate in the medium term, once the site for the repository has been agreed. What’s more, the directorate itself is intended to grow into a wholly-owned, standalone Site Licensing Company once it has developed sufficiently. And of course, the nature of our work will evolve dramatically as the programme moves from research and investigation through to site selection and implementation.