Background
ARPANSA received an Application (No. A0339) from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to prepare a site for a Nuclear Installation, known as the ANSTO Intermediate Level Waste Capacity Increase (ILWCI) Facility, at its Lucas Heights site in NSW.
ANSTO estimates its current Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) storage will reach capacity in 2027. The ILWCI facility will extend the period of ILW storage for another 10 years, allowing continued production of nuclear medicine.
Licence considerations
The assessment of the ILWCI application considers the conceptual safety and security design of the facility.
Other important factors are informed by advice from the Nuclear Safety Committee, public consultation and international best practices.
The full process for granting a licence is:
Public consultation for Intermediate Level Waste Capacity Increase
In October 2021 ARPANSA hosted an online consultation forum to provide an outline of the application and the review and decision-making process to interested parties. In addition ARPANSA invited comments from the public in relation the application. The consultation period ran from 1 September to 15 November 2021.
Five submissions in relation to the application were received. Responses to the submissions are found in Appendix 3 of the Regulatory Assessment Report and Section 3 of the statement of reasons. One public submission was requested to remain confidential and as such has not been addressed individually in the report so that the author cannot be identified. However, the submission was considered in the CEO’s licence decision.
CEO Decision to grant a licence for Intermediate Level Waste Capacity Increase
On 16 March 2022, ARPANSA’s CEO, Dr Carl-Magnus Larsson, issued a licence to ANSTO to prepare a site for the ILWCI facility.
The newly issued ‘licence to prepare a site’ for the facility is the first stage of a licencing process and it is expected that ANSTO will submit future construction, operations, and decommissioning licence applications.
Each of these submissions will be subject to full assessment by ARPANSA.
A detailed statement of reasons and the regulatory assessment report for the newly issued licence to site the ILWCI Facility can be found in the following documents:
