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Non-Executive Director
Candidate Information Pack
Contents Page Number
· Welcome Message 2
· Background 3
· About Radioactive Waste Management Limited 6
· Organisational Structure 7
· Role Description 9
· Person Specification 11
· Indicative Timetable 12
· How to Apply 13
Welcome Message
Thank you for your interest in the position of Non-executive Director, for Radioactive Waste Management Ltd.
For more than 60 years, Britain has been accumulating radioactive waste which is currently stored safely at over 30 sites around the country. The Government has launched a plan to deal permanently with the country’s higher activity radioactive waste. Radioactive Waste Management’s role is to deliver a geological disposal facility (GDF) with the public at the centre of decision-making on where it is sited. For the long term, we are responsible for making this waste even safer, by removing it from the surface, away from people and the environment and securing it in a number of vaults and tunnels deep underground.
Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) brings extensive and proven expertise in higher activity radioactive waste management and planning for a GDF and will work with interested communities and other stakeholders, with responsibility for planning and ultimately implementing geological disposal of higher activity wastes in accordance with Government policy.
The process of finding and developing a suitable site is going to take years during which we will engage with and respond to the many questions the public will inevitably have, building relationships with communities around the country, so that they have trust and confidence that we are working in partnership with them throughout this exercise.
Our organisation of scientists and engineers is determined to tackle this legacy. We work closely with our counterparts worldwide to provide reassurance and solutions to the many technical aspects of the programme. Every step of the process will be scrutinized. If we cannot satisfy ourselves and the independent regulators that a GDF is safe, then it will not be built.
We will review full investigations for the GDF programme - ensuring the right blend of skills and expertise to deliver the Business Plan and GDF programme – which are critical to providing for flexibility and efficiency and operating as the intelligent client to deliver this multi-billion pound programme. The first steps will be to conduct a national geological screening exercise looking at the country’s geology, working closely with other experts and with stakeholders.
The process of finding a suitable site is going to take many years in total. We will explain, discuss and respond to the many questions the public will inevitably have, building relationships with communities around the country, so that they have trust and confidence that we are working in partnership with them throughout this exercise.
As Independent non-executive director, you will play an important role on the board alongside RWM executives and non-executive colleagues from the NDA, offering a broader perspective and constructively scrutinising corporate strategy and operational performance. You will have an incontestable track record of achievement in community engagement and investment, combined with the delivery of comparable major projects.
Your ability constructively to challenge the executive and contribute to the development of strategy will support the transition of RWM from the planning stage to delivery of the Geological Disposal Facility. The challenges facing RWM are numerous, but your influence, insight and judgement, will combine with your specialist expertise to add value to corporate governance and leadership
These are highly complex and challenging issues. If you are interested in this leadership position and have the necessary experience to help lead RWM’s work, then we look forward to receiving your application.
Background
Higher-activity radioactive wastes are produced as a result of the generation of electricity in nuclear power stations, from the associated production and processing of the nuclear fuel, from the use of radioactive materials in industry, medicine and research, and from military nuclear programmes.
As one of the pioneers of nuclear technology, the UK has accumulated a substantial legacy of higher activity radioactive materials. Some of it has already been processed and placed in safe and secure interim storage on nuclear sites. However, most will only become waste over the next century or so as existing facilities reach the end of their lifetime and are decommissioned and cleaned up safely and securely.
These higher-activity wastes can remain radioactive, and thus potentially harmful, for hundreds of thousands of years. Modern, safe and secure interim storage can contain all this material – but this method of storage requires on-going human intervention to monitor the material and to ensure that it does not pose any risk to human or environmental health. While the Government believes that safe and secure interim storage is an effective method of managing waste in the short to medium term, the Government is committed to delivering a permanent disposal solution.
In October 2006, following recommendations made by the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), the Government announced its policy of geological disposal, preceded by safe and secure interim storage. The Government subsequently announced that it would pursue a policy of geological disposal with a community consent-based siting process working in partnership with potential host communities. This remains Government policy.
Geological Disposal
Geological disposal involves isolating radioactive waste in an engineered facility deep below ground inside a suitable rock formation to ensure that no harmful quantities of radioactivity ever reach the surface environment. It is a multi-barrier approach, based on placing packaged wastes in engineered tunnels at a depth of between 200 and 1000m underground, protected from disruption by man-made or natural events.
Geological disposal is internationally recognised as the preferred approach for the long-term management of higher-activity radioactive waste. It provides a long-term, safe solution to radioactive waste management that does not depend on on-going human intervention
2014 White Paper
In line with the Secretary of State’s written Ministerial statement of 31 January 2013, Government considered what lessons can be learned from the experiences of a previous programme in West Cumbria and elsewhere and invited views on the site selection aspects of the ongoing Managing Radioactive Waste Safely programme.
The White Paper released on 25th July 2014 set out the UK Government’s framework for managing higher-activity radioactive waste in the long term through geological disposal. This will be implemented alongside ongoing interim storage and supporting research. This White Paper updated (and replaced in England and Northern Ireland) the 2008 White Paper by the UK Government and the devolved administrations of Wales and Northern Ireland, Managing Radioactive Waste Safely – A Framework for Implementing Geological Disposal.
A GDF is a highly-engineered facility capable of isolating radioactive waste within multiple protective barriers, deep underground, to ensure that no harmful quantities of radioactivity ever reach the surface environment. The development of a GDF will be a major infrastructure project of national significance. It will provide a permanent solution for the UK’s existing higher activity radioactive waste (including anticipated waste from a new build programme.
To identify potential sites where a GDF could be located, the UK Government favours a community consent-based approach working in partnership with communities that are willing to participate in the siting process. A GDF is likely to bring significant economic benefits to a community that hosts it, in the form of long-term employment and infrastructure investment, and in the form of additional community investment that the UK Government has committed to provide.
The White Paper set out a number of initial actions to be undertaken by the UK Government and by the developer (Radioactive Waste Management Limited) to help implement geological disposal. It also set out a number of key principles and commitments that will shape the subsequent process of working with communities to identify and assess potential sites. It has been informed by a previous siting process that operated from 2008 to 2013, and the subsequent review of that process, including a Call for Evidence and formal public consultation, which took place in 2013.
This White Paper provides background information in relation to:
· The radioactive waste (and other nuclear materials that may be declared as waste in the future) that will be disposed of in a GDF, and how it is currently managed;
· How geological disposal became UK Government policy – a process informed by the recommendations of the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), and in line with the preferred approach internationally;
· Information on what geological disposal is, including aspects of its design, how it is constructed and regulated, and the roles and responsibilities of those organisations involved in its implementation.
It then set out the current policy framework for implementation of geological disposal in the UK, including:
· Establishing an upfront process of national screening, based on known geological information. This process will be led by the developer, drafting national screening guidance that will be evaluated by an independent review panel, in an open and transparent manner, before being applied across the UK (excluding Scotland);
· In England, bringing GDFs, and the borehole investigations that support their development, within the statutory definition of ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects’ within the Planning Act 2008. This provides an appropriate process for planning decisions, making public consultation an integral part of this process. The UK Government is developing a generic (i.e. non-site specific) National Policy Statement to support the planning process, providing the framework within which the decision to construct will be taken, and further upfront information to inform discussions with communities;
· Developing the policy for working with communities, including:
o Deciding on an approach to community representation, which has been informed by a community representation working group convened following publication of this White Paper;
o Providing high level information on community investment, including the process for deciding how and when this money will be invested, in relation to:
- Communities engaging in the siting process; and
- The community or communities that decide to host a GDF;
· Establishing a mechanism by which communities, the developer and Government can openly access independent, third party advice on key technical issues during the siting process.
The siting process will provide more information to communities before they are asked to get involved. With greater clarity on issues like geology and development impacts, community investment and community representation, communities will be able to engage with more confidence in the process to deliver this nationally significant infrastructure project.
To download the July 2014 White Paper, please follow the link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/332890/GDF_White_Paper_FINAL.pdf
About Radioactive Waste Management Limited
RWM was established as a wholly–owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on the 1 April 2014. It is the delivery organisation for a GDF and for the provision of other waste management solutions.
RWM has extensive and proven expertise in higher activity radioactive waste management and planning for a GDF. On behalf of Government and NDA we are running the geological disposal programme and have significant experience of specification, design, assessments and research.
We offer our waste producer customers disposability assessments of proposals for packaging intermediate level waste. This is done within the regulatory framework described in “The Management of Higher Activity Waste on Nuclear Licensed Sites”.
RWM provides support to NDA through upstream optioneering initiatives. This involves working proactively with waste owners to realise opportunities for the optimisation of the geological disposal system in combination with earlier phases of the waste management lifecycle in order to minimise factors such as safety and environmental impacts, hazard, cost, risk and volume of waste to be managed in a geological disposal facility.
We operate under a Services Agreement and Client Specification between NDA and RWM to deliver our mission, objectives and plans.
Our mission is to:
Deliver a geological disposal facility and provide radioactive waste management solutions.
Our objectives are to:
· Engage with national and local governments and communities to identify a geological disposal facility site.
· Develop the specification, design, safety case and environmental and sustainability assessments for the disposal system and obtain regulatory support.
· In conjunction with waste producers, identify and deliver solutions to optimise the management of higher activity waste.
· Develop and maintain an effective organisation and secure resources to deliver the geological disposal facility programme.
· Obtain and maintain stakeholder support for our activities.
· Deliver a focused R&D programme to support geological disposal and optimised packaging solutions.
Governance
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of NDA, RWM has a board of directors and is chaired by an NDA Director. This is the primary mechanism for NDA’s governance of RWM and its performance through monthly performance reports against its agreed business plan. Sanctioning of RWM’s funding is carried out by the NDA.
Organisational Structure
RWM Board
Non-Executives
NDA Chief Financial Officer and Estate Programme Director (Chair)
NDA Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Non-Executives - Independent x 2
RWM Managing Director
RWM HSSEQ Director
RWM Waste Management Director
RWM Executive Team
Managing Director
Science and Technology Director
Business Services Director (Acting)
Waste Management Director
Geological Disposal Facility Siting Director
Health, Safety, Security and Environmental Director
Stakeholder Engagement & Communications Director
Transition Programme Director
For the GDF siting process, RWM has specific programme governance arrangements from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Funding Framework
RWM is publicly funded by NDA with part of this financing coming from the income RWM generates from its disposability assessment activities and national and international research programmes. Our total planned expenditure is approved as part of the NDA business planning process and spending reviews.
Commercial Income