Management Activities

Maintaining control of the contaminated land and groundwater legacy is the principal land quality management requirement and the Sellafield Ltd ‘intelligent customer’ team is responsible for ensuring that appropriate safety and environmental protection measures are put into place and remain effective.

Activities to manage the subsurface contamination in the short to medium term comprise:
1. Maintenance of a Safety Case and a Best Practicable Means (BPM) Assessment to ensure radioactive doses to the workforce and the public are As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) while minimising additional impact to the environment.
2. Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) Review of all that it is reasonable to do to ensure management control of material in the ground in the short term and to maintain or improve this during the medium term.
3. Maintenance and refinement of the borehole monitoring programme to improve understanding of the contaminant transport and to monitor its changes over time.
4. Leak detection and management programmes to ensure a minimal increase to the contamination of the ground.
5. Characterisation studies to ensure appropriate understanding of the subsurface environment and conceptual models of the site.
6. Assessment studies to determine optimum management and remediation options to be
implemented in the medium and long term.
7. Remediation programmes to implement appropriate remediation options.
8. Development of appropriate contaminated land management infrastructure and expertise, including numerical models, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and records management including environmental data management.
9. Internal and external stakeholder engagement to communicate findings, to obtain feedback for future work and to facilitate smooth implementation of investigation programmes.